Better Together
by EvilMuffinLord
Summary: When he was a child, Izuku Midoriya was diagnosed with an invisible Quirk. Years later, he is given the chance to inherit the powers of the world's greatest hero. Little do either of them know, that that meeting will shake the foundations of the world, and set Izuku on the path to becoming greater than either of them could have ever dreamed. Cover art by Molly James
1. Where We Came From

"Izuku, honey, do you want some katsudon?" Inko asked tentatively.

He only shook his head in response, his one unbandaged eye never wavering from the computer monitor in front of him. He'd been like that since they returned home from the doctor's office earlier that afternoon.

At first she thought it was the painkillers keeping him numb, but as the hours wore on Izuku didn't so much as twitch. He simply watched his favorite All Might clip over and over again, letting it auto repeat rather than using the mouse to adjust anything.

Inko wished he would cry, or scream, or do something other than sit there. It couldn't be healthy for him to bottle his emotions up like that, not when he had always been willing to cry at the drop of a hat before today.

She wanted to reach out to him, to hold him close to her and to tell him everything would be ok. She wanted to bandage his poor heart just like the nurses had bandaged his face that morning after the accident at school. More than anything, she just wanted to make her son's pain go away.

But she couldn't do that. After all, what good were words in a situation like this? Any comforting things she whispered to him would only be lies after all.

When she had heard the doctor's pronouncement, her heart had shattered. Her son, her precious, beautiful baby boy had been told by the world he already wanted to desperately protect, that he couldn't be special. Not like everyone else.

She wondered if it was her fault. All of her immediate family had Quirks, even though none of them had anything truly spectacular. However, she did remember hearing stories about her uncle, who had been born without a Quirk. She'd never met the man, as the family had always kept him at arm's length. They had sent cards at every holiday, bribing young Inko with sweets to sign them before they had told her the story, but he was never seen at any of their get-togethers.

It certainly didn't come from Hisashi's family. His two other children, the ones in America he thought she doesn't know about, both had fire Quirks like their father. They even took after him in appearance, with barely any other their mother in them.

Izuku, on the other hand, was her son through and through. She had always thought of that as a blessing, but now she wondered if that lineage had doomed him from the beginning.

A tiny voice broke through her swirling thoughts, and brought her attention back to Izuku. He had turned his chair around to look at her, his uncovered eye looking sunken and lifeless. Behind him the brilliant smile of All Might was frozen in place, a perfect contrast to the pain that was evident in those deep green eyes.

"Mama..." His voice shook as he spoke, and in the corner of his eye tears finally began to form. "Mama, can I be a hero?"

In that moment, Inko's heart truly broke. She stumbled forward and wrapped her arms around her son, holding him tightly as her own tears began to flow in earnest.

"Oh, Izuku, I'm sorry." She paused to hiccup as the words refused to come to her. "I'm so, so sorry."

They stayed wrapped in each other's arms, tears flowing freely until Izuku finally cried himself to sleep. She carried him to his bed, All Might's face seeming to mock her from every direction. For as long as Izuku could understand what a hero was, the man had served as a source of hope for her son. Now, she wonders if he'll ever be able to look at his favorite hero the same way ever again.

A part of her was tempted to call Mitsuki so that she could have a shoulder to lean on, but she resisted the urge. Her friend had her own troubles after all, and she didn't need to add to them right now. She would call her old friend tomorrow, when she had had some time to think. Instead, Inko turned the TV on, muted it, and attempted to lose herself in a foreign soap opera.

It would be many hours before she finally managed to fall into a fitful sleep.

* * *

_It's not fair!_ Katsuki thought to himself.

It seems like everything has gone wrong for him, like the whole world has turned against him all at once. From his friends, to his classmates, to his own Quirk.

That was where it had started. Katsuki had been waiting _**forever**_for his quirk to come in. Plenty of kids in his class had theirs already. Tsubasa's had come in way back in February, a pair of wings growing from his back in a span of weeks. Then more and more of their class started to get their Quirks, and Katsuki had felt more and more alone. Now it was just him and Izuku who didn't have their Quirks, and Katsuki had been growing impatient.

And then his wishes had been granted. He didn't just get any Quirk either, his was awesome! He could hardly wait for the weekend to be over so he could show it off.

When school had come around, he had been the center of attention, just like always. They couldn't help but talk about how cool and useful his Quirk was. Even the teachers were impressed by the sparks that danced in his palms.

Just before the end of recess, his classmates had started a chant, begging him to show them what his Quirk could really do. Katsuki had been more than happy to oblige.

He raised his palms in front of him, like he had seen characters do in some of the old time anime he watched. The pose didn't feel as cool as he had hoped it would, but he had soldiered on nonetheless. He pushed all his willpower into making the biggest firework he could muster, tuning out the voices telling him that he could do it as best he could.

The roar of the explosion that tore from his palms was deafening. It's force blasted Katsuki back several feet, and he skidded along the hard earth until he came to rest near the far wall of the playground.

His arms throbbed painfully, his head swam, and his ears were filled with a piercing tone that made it hard to think. After what felt like forever he managed to sit up, and take in the aftermath.

The spot where he had been standing was chaos. The ground was scorched and smoked faintly. Their class's flower bed which they had been carefully tending was beyond saving, with several flowers now burning, and the rest flattened from the concussive force.

But the damage to the school had nothing on his classmates.

Katsuki could see Tsubasa cowering on the ground, his right wing bent at an angle that made Katsuki sick to look at. Amano's long blue braid was dirtied and in complete disarray. Pieces of Yousuke's stony shell were scattered around him. And Izuku…

Izuku had been thrown further than anyone else. He had been standing right next to Katsuki after all, cheering him on happily. Drops of blood on the ground formed a perfect trail from a rock that stuck up from the ground to where Katsuki's friend lay. He was clutching at his right eye, and Katsuki could see yet more blood flowing around his fingers.

Katsuki was jerked roughly to his feet by the teacher from one of the upper classes. They hardly even seemed to listen to what he was saying, his apologies, his questions about how his friends were. They simply dragged him away, and stuck him alone in the first classroom they could find while the damage was assessed and his parents were called.

He didn't see Aunty Inko arrive, cradling her little boy as she cried, blood and tears mixing together and running down his small body in rivulets. He didn't see the ambulance arrive to take them away, along with their teacher who was holding his limp arm and Tsubasa, whose wing's refused to move...

He couldn't really make out the words as his parents spoke with the principal. He could hear his mom's angry cries, imagine his father's soothing tone as he tried to talk her down. It didn't work very well. She still stormed into the classroom and carried Katsuki bodily out of the school.

He didn't go back to school that day, or the next. His parents assured him that what had happened wasn't his fault, not really, but that he would need to be careful with his Quirk from now on. He wouldn't be allowed to use it around the other students unless a teacher told him too.

He wanted to protest, to tell them that he had to use his Quirk, he needed to train to be a hero. His mom's tone stopped him though. She was quiet and serious, even more than his dad ever was. The change of attitude cowed him more than any harsh words ever could.

When he did return to school, everything was different. No one would meet his gaze, or even come near him. He tried to go to them, to explain that it had been an accident, it wasn't a big deal. They didn't listen.

Not even Tsubasa or Toda would speak to him. They both had bandages on their arms, and Tsubasa's wing was in a cast that kept him from sitting in a normal chair. When Katsuki tried to go near them, they flinched backwards and walked away as fast as they could.

Worst of all, Izuku was nowhere to bee seen. Katsuki couldn't remember a day when his green haired friend wasn't in class, his hand raised to answer the teacher's questions before anyone else had even finished processing the question.

It had been so different, sitting alone at lunch. There wasn't anyone to laugh at his jokes, or to talk about the latest All Might battle with. For the first time in a long while, Katsuki had felt truly lonely. It wasn't just that day either. For the rest of the week, no one would come near him during class, recess, or even lunch. And Izuku's desk sat empty.

* * *

A sharp impact to the back of his head jarred Katsuki from his thoughts. It wasn't hard enough to do any real damage, but it did leave a throbbing ache in his skull.

The laughter that followed it hurt so much more.

A group of his classmates stood by the edge of the schoolyard. They had a small pile of baseballs like the one that had been hurled at his head just a moment ago. A few were tossing a ball from hand to hand, like they were sizing up the distance between them and their target.

One of the boys, a recent transfer student named Shindo who had been hanging around Katsuki and his friends since he had moved to their school, was laughing harder than anyone else as he let his arm drop to his side.

"Did you like that, villain?" Shindo called. Katsuki hated the look on his face. It was a mockery of a smile, filled with venom and cruelty.

It was a look that he was rapidly become familiar with.

He wanted to wipe the smile off Shindo's stupid face. He took a step forward, gratified to see several of the others flinch back. He may not like the way people are afraid of him, but a deep part of him was pleased to see them step back.

"I'm not a villain." He growled.

Another ball flew towards him, though Katsuki managed to dodge this one.

"Shut up!" Toda called, his voice shaking from a mix of fear and anger. "You hurt Tsubasa! He can't fly and It's all your fault!"

"Yeah!" Another one calls. Katsuki doesn't remember his name. He usually let other people talk for him, content to stay at the back of the crowd. "My mom said that people with Quirks like yours always become villains!"

Katsuki knows it's not true. There are plenty of heroes with explosive Quirks, right? Except he can't bring any names to mind. Instead his head fills with yet more memories of Monday, of acrid smoke and the metallic smell of blood filling his nose.

As the jeers of his classmates filled Katsuki's ears, another memory asserted itself. A month ago, their teachers had shown them a video during class, with various heroes talking about ways to prevent bullying. The part that rises from his memory was a clip of All Might talking about proper Quirk use.

"Remember, young ones!" He had said, "A real hero never uses their Quirk to hurt others. Only villians do that!"

Were they right? Was he just fooling himself into thinking he was a hero when he was a villain like everyone said?

Was he evil?

"HEY!"

Katsuki looked up in surprise. The call had come from the last person he had been expecting.

Izuku stood at the far edge of the yard. A patch covered his right eye, and he looked even thinner and more pathetic than Katsuki remembered.

"Stop being mean to Kacchan!"

No one moved. None of them had been expecting someone to step in, so they didn't have a counter ready.

While they were distracted, Izuku put himself between Katsuki and his tormentors He spread his arms wide to serve as a shield between Katsuki and everyone else. Despite the fact that he was shaking like a leaf in a storm, he stayed where he was even as the tormentors recovered from their surprise.

"Why are you sticking up for a villain?" someone called from the back of the group.

"He's not a villain!" Izuku cried, stamping his foot. "We're gonna be heroes, like we always said." His voice hitches a little as he said it, though Katsuki isn't sure why.

"He's never gonna be a hero!" Shindo called. "He's just a villian and if you're with him, then you're a villain too!"

"Izuku's no villain." Toda said, a strange edge to his voice. "He's a freak! Tsubasa heard them talking about it at the hospital. He doesn't have a Quirk!"

Silence filled the yard once more. Katsuki didn't know how to react to the pronouncement. Even those who had been simply watching from the sidelines were floored by the revelation. It was just so strange to hear. After all, hardly anyone was born without a Quirk these days, so no one there had ever met someone Quirkless. Someone who wasn't special like they were.

"Izuku?" Katsuki hated how faint his voice was, but at that moment he couldn't manage more than a harsh whisper.

"Thats...I'm not…...it's..." Despite his stumbling protest, it was clear that Toda's words had struck home. Every bit of the meager confidence he had been displaying vanished in an instant, leaving behind someone Katsuki hardly recognized in his friend's place.

"C'mon Midoriya." Shindo said. The smile from earlier is back on his face, though this time it's directed at a new target. He doesn't know how it's possible, but Katsuki hates it even more now. "Tell us what your Quirk is."

Izuku mumbles something incomprehensible in response.

"What didja say?"

"I don't know." Izuku repeated. Despite the low tone he used, everyone could hear him fine. No one dared to talk over the conversation. It seemed as though even the birds above them had stopped singing to listen to the confrontation.

A laugh burst out from Shindo's lips. It spread quickly, from the instigator to those who found it genuinely funny, and then to those who wished to avoid being mocked themselves. As it did, whispered conversations broke out among the bystanders, growing louder by the second.

It's impossible to say who made the connection, but once it was spoken, it spread like wildfire. All of a sudden, everyone around Izuku was repeating the phrase "Useless Izuku". As it was repeated over and over, it morphed

"He is a useless Deku, isn't he?" Shindo said, his gaze slipping past the boy in question to rest firmly on Katsuki. It was an olive branch, a chance to escape from the suffering he had just endured.

In that moment, Katuski could practically see the fork in his path laid out in front of him. He could agree with Shindo, laugh along with the rest of them. He would be spared their mockery for as long as he stood behind them as did what he was told.

And all it would cost him is the only real friend he's ever had.

So Katsuki put on his best smile as he stood. He laughed right along with Shindo as he made his way towards the group. And finally, he placed a hand on Shindo's shoulder, drew back the other, and slugged Shindo in the face as hard as he could.

There weren't any explosions behind the punch, but there was still an impressive amount of power in it. Shindo went sprawling, and everyone around him took an involuntary step back.

Katsuki glared at them all, putting every bit of worry and annoyance he had felt that week into a look of pure malice. _If they're gonna call me a villian _He thought _Then I'll give em something to be scared of!_

"Don't talk about my friend like that!" He said, making sure each and every one of them got the message. "Cuz if you do, then I'll break your face!" With that, he turned on his heel, grabbed Izuku by the arm, and marched away.

* * *

"Izu, do you have a Quirk?"

After their confrontation with their classmates, neither Izuku not Katsuki had wanted to stick around school and risk anything else happening. Instead, they had made their way to a small park near their houses that they often played at. It was tucked away from where most people walked, so they often had it to themselves, making it the perfect place to play hero, and now the perfect place to talk.

Izuku hung his head. A part of him had hoped Katsuki wouldn't bring that up.

"Kinda." He said softly. "The doctor said it was invisible."

"What's that mean?" Katsuki asked.

"I can't use it." Izuku sniffed as he talked, trying hard to bite back the tears and failing miserably. "And I don't know what it is. He...he said I might never know."

Tears ran down the right side of his face, not the fat tears that he had shed with his mother, but a thin stream that flowed down his face and onto the grass below. Once the dam had broken that night, Izuku hadn't been able to stop crying. Every night, when he thought his mother had gone to bed he would sob softly to himself, mourning his lost dream

"He's a stupid butt." Katsuki said simply, breaking Izuku from his thoughts.

It was so different from what he had been expecting that he couldn't begin to understand what his friend had meant by it. He stared at Katsuki in naked confusion until the blonde boy elaborated.

"He said you wouldn't figure out your Quirk, right? But you're super smart!" A frown briefly crossed his face at that. "I mean, I'm smarter, but you're pretty good too."

"K-Kacchan, I'm not…." Izuku sniffled.

"Not like that you're not!" Katsuki said, hopping to his feet. "My future sidekick can't be a big crybaby. You'd make me look bad."

"Sidekick?" Izuku asked.

"Yeah! I'm gonna be the best hero ever, so I'm gonna need the best sidekick ever!"

"But All Might's the best hero ever." izuku protested.

"Well I'm gonna be even better than him!" Katsuki boldly declared. The fear and uncertainty from before were entirely gone as he stood tall and proud, eyes shining with the unbridled ambition of youth. His palms sparked slightly, just enough to emphasize his point. "So you gotta be the best too, Izu."

Izuku's unease and hesitation were fading as Katsuki spoke, the blonde boy's natural charisma drawing Izuku in.

"Like Nighteye…" Izuku said softly.

"Yeah!" Katsuki smiled broadly as Izuku caught on to his train of thought. "So you better hurry up and figure your Quirk out, or I'm gonna leave you in the dust!"

Izuku giggled at that, but a moment later he clambered atop the picnic table as well, mirroring Katsuki's pose. The pair did their best to imitate a classic picture of All Might and Sir Nighteye, one of the only pictures of the pair of them together, but didn't quite succeed. .

They stood together for a long moment until an elderly man passing by shouted at them to get off the picnic table they were using as a platform. They laughed to each other as they complied, then gathered their belongings together and sprinted home as fast as they could manage.

After all, they had some Quirk experiments to perform.

* * *

A pair of tiny blurs tore past Mitsuki as she opened the door. They barely stopped to kick off their shoes before dashing through the house and straight into Katsuki's room. A faint "Gonna play in my room" lingered in the air behind them.

Mitsuki felt a smile blossom on her face. Her son's energy had apparently come roaring back to him now that he had his friend back. The boy had been listless and quiet for the past few days, picking at his food and following every request she made. It had been so far outside of his usual behavior that Mistuki had considered taking him to the doctor before she talked with Inko.

It had been a one-two combo, first hearing from the school that Katsuki had caused an incident that left five of his classmates and a teacher injured, and damaged school property. It had only been an impassioned rant from Mitsuki, and some calmer reasoning from her husband, that had kept them from kicking her son out right there.

It ground her gears that they could talk about punishing her son for something that had obviously been an accident. He hadn't had his Quirk long enough to learn control, so how the hell can they even think of labeling him "unstable"

Hearing from Inko had only made things harder. The woman had called her in tears, and not just because of her son's injury. She at least understood that Katsuki hadn't meant it. No, Inko had called because she needed a shoulder to cry on, and with her husband out of the picture, Mitsuki was the obvious choice. Her son had been diagnosed with an invisible Quirk while they were in the hospital. It sounded like bullshit science to Mitsuki, (how could a single joint tell you how a child would grow up?) but Inko had been convinced.

Her husband too, apparently. Just after finding out about his son's condition, the rat bastard had announced that his post in America was going to be permanent. He promised to send money to support his son, but that was of little comfort given the circumstances. Mitsuku's heart went out to her friend. No one deserved to have that kind of hardship placed on them. She was sure Izuku had suffered as well. Confined to his house while he healed, having his dream stripped away from him at the same time as his father. It just wasn't right.

She peeked through the door of Katsuki's room, which was slightly ajar. The boys were bouncing excitedly on the bed, bed sheets tied around their shoulders in makeshift capes. Izuku had done his up in a kind of hood, apparently deciding that the bandage on his face made him look "brooding", if the voice he was making was any indication. Katsuki, meanwhile, had borrowed her lipstick to put what were probably supposed to be lines of blood on his face.

The two were playing a game she's never seen before, something that involved a bucket, several throw pillows, and an All Might plusie tied haphazardly to a chair. Izuku stood in the bucket, waving his hands wildly at the plushie while Katsuki looked on in fascination.

It was adorable, in an odd sort of way. Even now, with no real chance for them to make it as Heroes, they were both still so enthusiastic about it. She hoped that enthusiasm wouldn't dim too much when reality caught up with them.

* * *

That night, Izuku stayed up well past his bedtime despite his exhaustion, hiding the light from his bedside lamp under the blankets as best he could.

He worked on a notebook, one his mother had gotten him for school, but he had never used. His writing was sloppy, though he did his best to keep it legible. He filled it with ideas for Quirks that he could possess, and ways to test for them. The ideas were childish at best, many of them variations on All Might's abilities

Finally, late into the night, he couldn't keep his eyes open for a single second longer. His head lolled, and he slowly fell into a deep slumber. Even so, his grip on the notebook never relaxed as he slept.

Inko found him the next morning, curled around his pillow, and a small smile on his lips as he dreamed. Clutched in his small hands was a notebook, proudly labeled "Hero Analysis for the Future" in Izuku's best handwriting.

* * *

"Izuku, I swear to god, if your nerdy ass gets me killed, I _**will**_ haunt you!"

The pair had been on their way home from school when a villain had been caught robbing a convenience store near them. Izuku had immediately started running towards the action to the shock of nearly everyone around him. Katsuki, on the other hand, hadn't been surprised though he had been annoyed. Leave it to Izuku to let his fanboy nature overrun his common sense.

The fight was between some two bit villian Katsuki hadn't heard of before. From what he could see, the guy was just some stupid attention seeker who could make things stretchy. It seemed like a pretty lame power to Katsuki, but the guy was doing a good job holding the heroes off. He kept redirecting the heroes attacks, and didn't seem to care much where they landed.

Katsuki ducked reflexivly as an icicle flew past his head and embedded into the wall behind him. Izuku didn't even flinch. He just kept scribbling in his notebook and muttering furiously to himself, glancing back and forth between the battle and his notes.

"Get down idiot!" Katsuki called, tackling his friend to the ground as another hail of ice narrowly missed them.

HIs call alerted one of the heroes who rushed over to shield them with his massive body.

"You kids need to get out of here! This area isn't safe!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Katsuki said, practically dragging Izuku with him.

"Thank you sir!" Izuku called, stumbling backwards as Katsuki attempted to get him to safety. He'd somehow been able to keep hold of his notebook through all the chaos, and held it above his head. "I'd love to get your autograph sometime!"

They ran as fast as they could, or at least as fast as Izuku could. For Katsuki it was closer to a jog as his friend gasped along side of him. The heroes continued to battle the villain, and Katsuki mentally upgraded the man from a nobody to an actual threat. Anyone who could hold off three pros for that long was at least a little impressive.

Finally, they were far enough away that the pair felt safe enough to relax. A nearby vending machine provided some much needed rehydration, and a flimsy bench gave them a place to sit and rest, albeit one that creaked in protest every time one of them shifted position.

"Was it really worth getting that close?" Katsuki asked.

Despite his obvious exhaustion, Izuku nodded furiously. Rather than answering, he held his notebook out for Katsuki to see.

Katsuki was continually impressed with his friend's ability to analyze heros, and at his writing speed. Despite being on the scene for only a few minutes, the page was already filled with Izuku's illegible scribblings. His writing was crabbed and rambled across the page, in a perfect match to Izuku's own thoughts. In fact, when Katsuki thought about it, Izuku's notebooks were basically a visual version of the muttering fugues he often fell into.

"You know literally no one esle can read this, right?" Katsuki said, shaking his head.

"It's not that bad!" Izuku protested.

In response, Katsuki pointed to a sentence with no less than seven different asides denoted by asterisks. Perhaps it made sense to Izuku, but to anyone else, it appeared to be madness.

"Okay it's a little bad." He conceded.

"It's ridiculous is what it is." He tossed the notebook back to Izuku, who scrambled to grab it before it could hit the ground. "Your shit's good, it's just that no one can understand it. Remember Backdraft?"

Izuku threw his hands into the air in frustration. "I don't know how he misunderstood it so badly. I was just trying to help out! His Quirk could be much more effective if he routed the water through multiple channels inside his suit, instead of the single funnel system he has. Plus-"

Katsuki sighed as Izuku began warming up to his favorite topic. Once he got started, it was easier just to let him talk. Plus, while he would never admit it, Izuku was pretty fun to listen to when he really got going. Katsuki pulled out some of his homework, and settled in for a long afternoon.

* * *

"Piss off, assholes!" Katsuki yelled at the retreating forms. He had stumbled across a pair of students harassing an underclassman. Normally he wouldn't get involved, but something about the younger girl's demeanor had reminded him of Izuku.

Plus, It was Kiba and Akira who were doing the harassing and Katsuki was always up for taking them down a peg.

The pair took one look at Katsuki's stormy face, as well as the sparks that popped and crackled on his palms, and fled. It left Katsuki with mixed feelings. On the one hand, he was disappointed that they had folded so easily, since a win that easy wasn't even worth calling a win. On the other hand, this meant he wouldn't be hearing a lecture from Izuku on "proper heroic behavior".

Izuku's lectures were way worse than the teachers. Katsuki could ignore their inane prattling for as long as he needed too, but Izuku had a way of making Katsuki feel guilty about his actions that no one else could replicate.

Shuddering slightly at the thought, he turned around to face the victim. She was a small, with short brown hair and a pair of twitching round ears on the top of her head. Behind her a short whiplike tail was twitching furiously. A cracked pair of glasses lay next to her, and she scrambled to retrieve them.

"Y-you didn't need to do that" she said timidly. "They would have left eventually"

Katsuki snorted at her naivete. He knew exactly what type of guys they were after dealing with them for years, and letting them have their way would only lead to them taking advantage of her even more regularly.

She finally managed to get her glasses back on her face, peering around the crack in the lenses to smile at him. And then her face fell as she realized who he was. He could actually see the moment when the label for him in her mind changed from 'savior' to 'villian'

It wasn't the first time it had happened. The other students made sure to let every new transfer know about him right away. Not that he cared what a bunch of extras thought about him. They could call him a villain till the cows came home, and he would still show them all when he became the best damn hero they'd ever heard of.

The girl started to stammer something incomprehensible, probably begging him not to hurt her or steal her wallet. Katsuki didn't bother to respond. He just turned on his heel and stomped off.

Just like her first impression of him had given way to fear, his shifted as well. From hapless victim to just another shitty extra, content to pass time at their shitty school with no ambition, and no ability to think for herself.

His foul mood persisted as he made his way home. He knows it shouldn't bother him nearly as much as it does, but his feelings refused to respond to him.

As he turned down the street towards his house, Katsuki realized he was too furious to just sit around and do homework. Besides, his mom would notice in an instant and get on his case. She'd probably try some bullshit like force him to do yoga or meditation again.

Growling, Katsuki instead set himself on the path to the Lair.

The Lair was a prime example of why Izuku was not allowed to name things without supervision. When Katsuki was younger, the name hadn't seemed so bad, but now it just felt a little too juvenile. Still, Izuku insisted they keep the name, so Katsuki simply grit his teeth and bore it.

The Lair consisted of a large clearing in the local woods that tucked up against a fairly sheer cliff. When they had first found the clearing years ago while exploring, the ground had been rocky and uneven. With some effort, (mostly Katsuki's since Izuku was a perpetual lightweight) they had cleared most of the larger stones and piled them against the cliff face. They had flattened the ground too, using a large salvaged steel plate that they slammed into the ground using Katsuki's explosions for extra force.

What they were left with was a large, flat area tucked away from most people's prying eyes and ears, with plenty of large smooth stones for sitting on. In short, it was a surprisingly adequate area for training and relaxation, considering it had been put together by a couple of elementary schoolers.

Surprisingly, Izuku was already there, working on one of his notebooks. Usually, he spent his free time in the library, researching invisible Quirks and Quirk science, or wandering the streets to try and catch a glimpse of a Hero fight.

Izuku looked up from his work as Katsuki approached, and smiled at him.

Katsuki nodded briefly to him, and then set about changing into his workout clothes. He'd started leaving a set at the Lair a long time ago for just this sort of day. They'd proven useful in the past, when he'd gotten into a fight that had stained his uniform and needed something to wear home that wouldn't set his mother on the warpath.

Izuku went back to his work as Katsuki began stretching. When he had first started using the Lair for a training area, Izuku had been distracted by his grunts of exertion while he worked. Now though, Izuku was able to completely tune them out. He had had plenty of practice after all. Katsuki made sure to train for several hours per day, and the Lair was definitely better than his house.

However, that might not last much longer. At first, the rocks there had been perfect for Katsuki's training. He'd started with just shifting them out of the way, and then moved on to lifting and dragging increasingly heavy stones. Recently though, he'd had a harder time getting the level of challenge he needed. Part of him longed to try again for a gym membership, but all of the local ones wouldn't have him for fear he'd destroy their equipment in a villainous rampage.

He growled again, and grabbed the heaviest rock he could find, pressing it above his head again and again in the vain hope that exercise would distract him from the ember of rage burning in his stomach.

His efforts were for naught, however. An hour later he was sweating and tired but still just as angry as he had been. In a final attempt to relieve his irritation, he placed his palm against the chunk of stone he'd been using as a weight, and let loose a blast that sent it bouncing along the ground for more than a dozen feet, before it slammed into the cliff wall with a mighty crack.

Try as he might, he'd never quite been able to replicate the power he'd displayed the first time he'd really used his Quirk. Izuku theorized it was a subconscious limiter, to prevent him from damaging his arms again. The explanation didn't sound quite right to Katsuki, but he didn't really know enough about Quirk psychology to dispute it.

The sound of the explosion he loosed had disturbed most of the local bird population, as well as Izuku, all of whom were making their irritation known in the form of indignant squawking.

"A little warning would have been nice!" Izuku called when he had recovered himself somewhat.

"My bad. Fire in the fucking hole." Katsuki deadpanned.

Izuku sighed in response. "Better late than never, I guess." He picked his notebook up from where it had fallen and went back to work, scribbling furiously.

That was something that Katsuki both admired, and hated about his friend. Despite years of experiments and research, Izuku was still not able to use whatever Quirk he supposedly possessed. Even so, he refused to give up on his dream.

It should be something to admire, that drive to not give up even when the entire world was against him. But it was hard for Katsuki to watch. Try as he might, Izuku didn't have any power, any way to fight back against the people who tried to bring him down. The scar on his face was proof of that, a long while line running down the right side of his face, stretching from above his eyebrow nearly to his jaw. Nor did he possess any of Katsuki's edge.

Katsuki had long ago decided that the general public could go fuck itself. Izuku on the other hand was always willing to let people in, to make friends. It was why he kept getting hurt, and why he would continue to get hurt until he toughened up.

Katsuki had tried to toughen his friend up slightly, but it hadn't worked. He was still the same overly friendly, nerdy softie that he had been since childhood.

And it was Katsuki's job to protect him as best he could. Whatever it took.

Groaning, Katuski made his way over to the cliff face, and rolled another pair of stones out into the clearing. Working himself to exhaustion to avoid dealing with his anger may not have been the healthiest coping mechanism, but it was the only one he would deign to use, so that was what he was going to do.

* * *

Izuku was hurrying along the school's main corridor when his legs suddenly went out from under him.

It wasn't an unfamiliar sensation, but it took him by surprise all the same. He dropped the binders in his arms as he desperately tried to keep from smacking his face into the floor.

He was only mildly successful. His wrist throbbed painfully, and he could already tell that he would have a bruise on his forehead. He hurt all over, but his heart hurt even worse.

"Nice fall, Deku." Shindo's mocking voice came from above him. His leg was still extended from when he had tripped Izuku. "I'd give you a 10 out of 10 for falling on your face." Behind him, his cronies laughed as if he had told the funniest joke in the world.

"Y-yeah. I...uh…Guess I wasn't looking where I was going." As he spoke, Izuku scrambled to gather up his papers which had scattered all over the floor. Thankfully, everyone was giving him a wide berth, not wanting to get involved, so none of his papers were being trampled.

He made it all the way to the last piece before Shindo stepped in, literally.

Just as Izuku's was reaching for the last paper, Shindo's foot came down heavily, pinning it to the floor unless Izuku wanted to tear it in half.

"Here, let me help you with that." His smile was sickly sweet as he picked the paper up and held it out for Izuku to take. "After all, we all know you're useless without your pet monster."

Izuku's arm froze as his entire body stiffened. It wasn't a new insult, in fact it was one of Shindo's favorites. That was, of course, because it never failed to send a shard of ice through Izuku's heart to hear his friend referred to like that.

Katsuki was many things; aggressive, foul mouthed, loud, and more than willing to fight anyone who got in his way. But Izuku knew that beneath all that beat the heart of a true hero, the kind of person who was going to shake the world when the rest of them finally learned to see what had always been obvious to Izuku.

So it galled him to hear his friend treated that way. Izuku could take it. He'd gotten plenty of practice tuning out the whispered comments, the barely audible snickers when he walked through the halls. He could deal with the trash that was left in his locker, the papers that bounced off his head when the teacher wasn't looking. He could even live with the tripping.

What he couldn't stomach was the way they treated his friend.

Izuku took a step forward, not sure what he could do against someone like Shindo but intending something physical all the same. He didn't even get the chance.

Quick as a snake, Shindo's foot lashed out and planted itself firmly on Izuku's shadow. Instantly, he felt his entire body stiffen, muscles locking in place and refusing to obey his commands.

"What's the matter, Deku? Feeling a little stuck? Or just useless as usual?" Shindo said mockingly.

Izuku shivered where he stood. Shindo's Quirk let him paralyze people's voluntary muscles when he stepped on their shadows, as he was very fond of telling people. It left the victim able to breathe, but not move. It was also a deeply unpleasant experience, as Izuku could attest to. That wasn't the reason Izuku was shivering though.

Izuku was genuinely scared, because for all his talk Shindo had never actually used his Quirk on Izuku or Katsuki. This was a new development and Izuku did not like it. He desperately wished that Katsuki hadn't had a doctor's appointment that day. They were always less bold when his friend was nearby.

"You know what I don't get?" Shindo said, bringing Izuku back to the moment. "Why you insist on not doing anything. Ayase's Quirk doesn't do anything besides making her smell sweet, but at least she uses it. You just insist on being useless."

Izuku felt his muscles start to respond again as Shindo shifted his weight. Despite knowing it wouldn't work, Izuku felt compelled to respond. Sure, they'd had nearly this exact same conversation plenty of times.

"That's not how it works. I can't use my Quirk."

"So, you're Quirkless."

"No!" Izuku knew getting angry wasn't productive, but he couldn't help it. He hated this topic, hated that he felt the need to explain himself over and over to people. He tried to keep it quiet, but anytime there were new students, someone invariably let them know. "I have a Quirk, but I can't use it. It's invisible"

Shindo placed a palm to his face with a dramatic sigh. "And that's what makes you so pathetic. You're too lazy to learn to use your own Quirk. You'd rather just let that blonde attack dog do everything for you." He leaned in so close Izuku could smell the cafeteria sandwich that still lingered on his breath. "You make me sick."

Izuku opened his mouth to respond, even though he had no idea what he could even say in response when a new voice drew their attention..

"What's going on here?" Said Mrs. Saotome. She wasn't Izuku's favorite teacher, but she didn't let anyone get away with harassing him like so many of the other teachers. She was a firm believer that the same rules applied to everyone, regardless of age, academic standing, or even Quirk.

"Nothing" Shindo practically snapped. "Come on guys. We're done here." With that, he turned on his heel and marched off, his lackeys following on his heel.

"You should be on your way as well, Midoriya." Mrs. Saotome said as she watched them leave. "We can't have students loitering around campus. That's the kind of degeneracy that leads to villainy after all."

Izuku sighed, then turned towards the exit himself. As he stepped forward, something crinkled underfoot.

Glancing down, he saw the paper that Shindo had been holding hostage moments earlier. He reached down and picked it up, and his anxiety flared up once more.

It was the career survey their teacher had given them earlier that day, due at the beginning of next week. It was also a reminder that his time at Aldera was coming to a close.

He should pick a safe school, one unconnected to heroism in any way. But he can't bring himself to. It may be a stupid decision, one that will only lead him to more pain and mockery, but Izuku knew what he wanted.

Slowly, he pulled a pen out of his pocket, and wrote his choice in the best penmanship he could muster, using a nearby trash can as a writing desk.

The words 'UA High-Hero Division' looked just right on the page, and Izuku stared at them for several minutes before he finally made his way home, a small bounce in his step that hadn't been there a few minutes before.


	2. A Chance Encounter

Izuku was crying freely, not even bothering to hide the tears as he ran. His side ached with every step and his lungs burned from exertion, but he didn't dare stop. Stopping would give him time to think, and Izuku couldn't allow that. If he started to remember how his dreams had been broken, then he wouldn't be able to function.

* * *

The day had started well enough. The previously miserable weather had finally cleared up, leaving behind a sunny sky and patches of fresh flowers everywhere you looked. On a day like that, even Katsuki seemed less grumpy than usual. The pair had engaged in a lengthy conversation about the merits of capes in hero costumes, with Izuku arguing that their classic aesthetics outweigh any potential downsides, and Katsuki pointing out that the capes made for very aesthetically pleasing corpses.

There hadn't even been anyone waiting to harass them as they made their way into the school. Over the years, the number of people who took time out of their day to harass the pair had dwindled down to just a handful of truly dedicated tormentors. That said, those few people had always been the most vicious and aggressive ones.

They were careful around Katsuki. He might not have used his Quirk to its full capacity against someone else since they had been kids, but he did make sure to remind everyone what he was capable of. Even still, they took every chance they could get to harass and demean Katsuki, and Izuku as well.

Thankfully, there hadn't been a fight in months. The last bout had ended decisively in Katsuki's favor, even without his Quirk. Shindo and his cronies had been left with plenty of bruises and bloody lips, while Katsuki and Izuku had been left with suspensions and the threat of expulsion if they should act out again. Never mind the fact that they had been minding their own business, or that neither of them had thrown a punch until Shindo had pinned Izuku in place and punched him in the gut. All the principal had seen was Katsuki's name, and decided that he must have been the one who started it. Izuku was simply seen as an accessory.

The label of 'Villain' followed Katsuki like a dark cloud, and Izuku seemed to be the only one who could see past it. He was convinced, however, that real heroes would be able to as well. Which was why he knew Katsuki would thrive at UA when he inevitably got in.

Izuku was convinced that a Hero school would see the potential that his friend possessed. The drive to be better than anyone else, the drive to help people in need. Katsuki was smart, powerful, and even kind to those who didn't judge him before they knew him. He was everything a Hero was supposed to be, and Izuku could hardly wait until everyone else saw that.

* * *

With how smoothly the morning had gone, It had come as a slap in the face when homeroom soured everything. It began with the usual announcements, the teacher letting them know about some club activities being rescheduled, reminding everyone about their upcoming field trip to the Gunga aquarium. And then he had returned their career surveys...

Everyone wanted to be a hero someday. It was natural, who didn't want to be wealthy, respected, adored by everyone they passed in the streets. Sure, those weren't the most noble reasons for becoming a hero, but even those who became heroes for selfish reasons still did good, still helped people.

Even Izuku wanted to be a hero, deep in his heart. Even though Shindo and his cronies reminded him everyday that he was useless, as bad as being Quirkless without the excuse of actually lacking abilities. He still wanted to be able to help those in need, to make people feel just a little bit safer when they saw him. Izuku didn't regret his choice, but he did worry about how it would be received.

As it turned out, he was right to worry.

"Aww, who am I kidding? You all want to be heroes after all!" Their teacher didn't even bother to pass the surveys back, simply tossing them into the air in a casual dismissal.

The class erupted into cheers and discussion as every member of the class showed of their Quirk, talking about what kind of hero they wanted to be when they went pro.

Izuku and Katsuki were the only ones not jabbering furiously as the teacher attempted to enforce a semblance of order on the class once more. Katsuki was doing his best to appear aloof, as if the discussion didn't bother him at all. Izuku could see the small signs of irritation that leaked through his demeanor though. Izuku, for his part, tried to look small and unassuming, hoping that everyone's attention would pass him by.

And then nearly had a heart attack when Katsuki suddenly began to speak.

"Hah! Like you extras ever had a chance of being anything other than some third rate hero's sidekick." The sneer on his face was so textbook that Izuku was almost certain he had practiced it beforehand.

His pronouncement had the intended effect of pissing nearly every single person in the room off. It had been chaos before, but now their class was in a near riot. Everyone wanted to make their opinion of Katsuki's statement known, and at the loudest volume they could manage. The teacher simply gave up trying to restore order and sat back in his chair. Izuku was suddenly very tempted to slip under his desk and curl into a ball for the rest of the period.

The teacher may not have been able to shut the room down, but Katsuki certainly was. He slammed his palm into his desk and let loose an explosion. It was a showy blast with plenty of smoke and flash, but very little power. In the closed environment of the classroom, however, it was certainly eye catching. Smoke wreathed around Katsuki, enhancing his naturally harsh features to the point that even Izuku, who knew better, found himself gulping involuntarily.

"Why don't you all try shutting the hell up?" He hissed, sweeping his gaze around the room.

Not for the first time, Izuku regretted letting Katsuki take a peek into his notebook about the strategies of various villains. He'd taken the notes on intimidation and run with them, much to Izuku's chagrin. Izuku couldn't deny the skill would be useful in hero work someday. He just wished Katuski wouldn't practice it in class. It only enhanced the rumors about his 'villainous nature'

"Unlike all you slackers," Katsuki said "I'm aiming for the top! UA high's the only place good enough for me. I've aced every mock exam so far, and when I make it to the top, you can all eat my dust."

A scattering of mutters went through the crowd, surprise over Katsuki's choice of school, discussions about if he even stood a chance of getting in, and the always popular exaggerated rumors of Katsuki's supposed misdeeds.

He stood above it all, inviting anyone to challenge his statement and, by extension, him. Shindo looked ready to try something, but at that moment, the teacher interviend the only way he could think of. He redirected their attention to a less feisty target.

"Midoriya, you're aiming to enter UA high as well, right? Gonna have to bring up those test scores if you want to pass the entrance exam."

A bomb going off in the middle of class wouldn't have distracted them as easily as those few words, and not just due to them having been desensitized from years of Katsuki's presence.

Deafening laughter filled the room, and echoed down the halls of the school as the mood in the class changed from one of anger and frustration into one of mirth.

"Like you could ever amount to anything Deku" Shindo managed to wheeze out between bouts of laughter. His cronies, and several other people in the class repeated the sentiment.

After a minute had passed, Izuku expected Katsuki to jump in, to intimidate the others into silence, or just give him some back up. No explosions came, however, and Izuku risked a glance to his friend.

He was simply sitting in his chair, not reclining like he usually did. His gaze was fixed straight ahead to the front of the class. Izuku couldn't tell exactly what he was staring at, but it was just beyond the teacher's podium. It was also consuming all of his attention. Even when Shindo attempted to bring Katsuki into the mockery, he didn't even twitch. That, more than anything else he could have done, intimidated the class back into a semblance of order.

They could handle the loud, boisterous Katsuki. They'd been learning to deal with him for years now, and had learned when the true threat lay in his eye. This was an unexpected reaction, and that made it frightening.

Even after the teacher regained control of the class and began the day's lecture, Izuku found himself unable to concentrate. Between the mockery of his dream and his friend's strange behavior, nothing seemed to stick in his head.

Instead, he daydreamed as he stared out the window, picturing himself and Katsuki attending UA high together, no longer having to worry about being tripped as they walked down the halls, or having their lockers filled with trash.

He was so lost in his daydreams that he didn't even notice that Katsuki was also paying little mind to the lecture. His thoughts, however, were much less positive than Izuku's.

* * *

Izuku started when he heard someone call his name. He'd been keeping his head down as best he could for the entire day, not that it really helped, so when he heard his name, a part of him expected yet more mockery.

Instead, he found Katsuki leaning against the school gate, glaring at anyone who didn't give him a wide enough berth. When their eyes met Katsuki jerked his head, indicating for Izuku to follow him.

It was a bit of an odd change of pace. They usually went to the Lair after school was over, but Katsuki was heading in the opposite direction. Izuku wracked his brain, but couldn't think of Katsuki mentioning anything he wanted to do today. There wasn't even that much to see along the path he was heading down, just a half decent ramen stand and a few shops that Katsuki wouldn't be caught dead visiting.

They didn't go far. Just a few blocks away from the school, Katsuki turned into a small dead end alleyway, the kind you didn't really notice unless you were looking for it. Now Izuku was really intrigued.

"Kacchan?" Izuku called. The alley was just dim enough that he had to squint to make out the details. It was mostly barren, a few plastic trash bags piled up to one side, and a small blackened area that was surrounded by cigarette butts.

Katuski was standing just a few feet in, hands in his pockets, and his shoulders even more hunched than usual. It could best be described as 'defensive', though Izuku didn't know what he would be defending against. Even when he was facing down multiple opponents, Katuski always looked relaxed. In fact, his casually abrasive nature was one of the few things Izuku found that he could count on in this world

Katsuki gestured for Izuku to come closer as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pair of papers.

"We need to talk." Katsuki said.

"Okay. Um...what did you want to talk about?"

In response, Katsuki held the papers out to Izuku.

Izuku felt his stomach drop. The top paper was the career survey from earlier that day, which Katsuki had apparently picked up when no one was looking. The second paper was another copy, probably another student's that Katsuki had swiped when he grabbed Izuku's, which had been generously coated with whiteout, rendering it lumpy but effectively blank.

"K-Kacchan?" Izuku asked, his stutter asserting itself full force. It wasn't usually a problem around Katsuki. No matter how much his friend growled, snapped, or scoffed, Izuku never felt nervous around him. He knew about the good heart that beat underneath all the anger and resentment.

But now, Katsuki was calm and quiet l, and that worried Izuku more than anything his friend had ever done before. And when he realized what this talk was going to be about, his heart couldn't help but beat at a furious pace.

"Izuku, you put that you were applying to the hero course." Katsuki stated bluntly.

"Y-yeah I...I did. I...We...we always talked about being heroes together."

"That was when we were kids." Katsuki said, shaking his head. "When we didn't know better. When… when we thought you could just figure out your Quirk."

It stung, hearing the words from Katsuki. The subject of Izuku's Quirk had become a taboo subject as the years passed. At first, it had seemed doable, they just had to find the right method, and Izuku could take his place at Katsuki's side. But after years of trials and no results, their enthusiasm had faded, and talking about it had slowly become something they avoided at all costs. Izuku still tested everything he could think of, but as more and more ideas turned out to be dead ends, even he had started to lose hope.

What had kept him going was that long ago promise to Katsuki, and his ever present desire to help people.

"B-but there's still a year left!" Izuku cried. "I could still-"

Katsuki held up a hand to cut him off. "There's less than a year. And even if by some miracle you could figure out your Quirk in that time, you wouldn't have any idea how to use it. You remember how it took me months to be able to use my explosions consistently. And my Quirk is pretty fucking straight forward compared to some of the other ones out there."

He shook his head as he continued. "If you want to try for the Gen-Ed course, I'll support you 100%. Hell, with your brain, I'm sure the business and support courses would fight to have you" His gaze hardened. "But not the hero course."

Izuku's breath was coming faster now, his mind racing to come up with some argument. He couldn't find any though. He'd had this same argument with himself a thousand times before, and had never reached a conclusion. He knew it was crazy to try and get into the UA without a Quirk, and even crazier to try for the Hero Course. He couldn't help it though. Every time he considered an alternative, his gut throbbed painfully. It burned at the thought of accepting some lesser career.

"Kacchan, I… I want...I want to be a hero…." He sniffled as he spoke, the familiar prickle of tears quickly building behind his eyes.

Katsuki's expression was unreadable. Then, he took a deep breath, as if to steel himself for what was about to come. In the gloom of the alley his eyes seemed dull, as if their usual fire had gone out entirely.

"You can't, Izuku. Not without a Quirk"

It was funny, in a heart wrenching way. Izuku felt himself transported back all those years to the night he had asked his mother if he could be a hero. The exact words were different, but that didn't matter. The meaning was the same. Izuku's dream, the one he had held onto for so long, the one he had only been able to keep because Katsuki was there with him was shattering right in front of him.

Izuku wanted to cry, to scream, to do anything but stand there numbly. No matter how much he willed them to, however, his legs refused to move.

Then Katsuki did something Izuku would never have expected. He reached out a hand, and placed it on Izuku's shoulder in what should have been a comforting gesture. He had obviously meant it that way, despite the fact it probably made Katsuki intensely uncomfortable to show his emotions like that.

But instead of being comforting, it just hurt Izuku even more. A single sob broke through his lips, and like that the spell was broken. He turned on his heel, throwing off Katuski's hand in the process, and ran for everything he was worth, not stopping when Katsuki called his name, or when he nearly careened into an old woman tottering down the street.

He ran with reckless abandon, tears filling his vision and dissolving the world into a haze of abstract shapes and colors. He kept running, trying to get away from the class who mocked him, the world that bellittled him, the best friend who had told him exactly what he had always known deep down.

But mostly, he ran to escape the pain in his chest that had nothing to do with his exertion.

* * *

Izuku had no idea where he was running to, or even where he was. All he knew was that he had to keep going, to keep running until the pain in his limbs outweighed the pain in his chest.

He'd never been very physically gifted, a perpetual stringbean among his peers, no matter how hard Katsuki tried to make him fill out. He'd never been able to keep up a consistent workout schedule. He wanted to, of course, but he could never really muster the proper motivation. Probably because he had always known that he could never make it.

Another strangled sob broke through his lips, but this time his tired lungs couldn't make up for the lost oxygen. He stumbled to a stop as they throbbed, gasping for air. Everything burned from his exertions.

He wiped the tears out of his eyes as he looked around, trying to take stock of his surroundings. He couldn't see anything familiar. The buildings seemed to loom over him, their unfamiliar facades seeming more intimidating than he had ever thought possible.

A loud rattling sound distracted him from his search. He turned, trying to ascertain the source, and his vision was suddenly filled with green.

Some kind of gelatinous sludge wound its way around his body, quickly covering him from nearly head to toe. It wove its way around his arms and legs, trapping him in place. He clawed furiously, but to no avail. The sludge simply squished through his fingers, not slowing its relentless march around his body.

It was disturbingly warm as it wound around his face, filling his mouth and nose with choking fluid. His ears were left open though, so he could still hear the voice that came from the sludge, deep and garbled as it seemed to come from all around him.

"How lucky!" The villain, for he was undoubtedly a true villain, cried. "I was just looking for a skin suit, and then you just stumble into my lap. Looks like luck is finally turning in my favor!" He chortled to himself at the thought.

Izuku could feel his consciousness fading. The run had left his muscles shaky and oxygen deprived already, and now they were screaming at him. The edges of his vision were drawing in as darkness consumed them.

Desperately he reached for anything that could save him. Even if he could scream, there was no one nearby to hear it. His bag had fallen when the villain grabbed him. He could feel it with his toes, but was unable to reach it. The only thing left to him was his own strength, which was sorely lacking. Besides, physical attacks were probably ineffective, given his fluid body.

His last, most desperate hope was his hidden Quirk. He had never been able to activate it, no matter how hard he tried through the years. But now, he reached deep inside of himself with every fiber of his will, trying to pull whatever power lay dormant within him out into the world, hoping against hope that the stress of a near death scenario would trigger it.

Nothing came. No fire danced along his limbs, no objects defied gravity to hit his opponent, and his limbs didn't grow suddenly stronger. He was still the same, useless Izuku he had always been, the same one he would die as.

His one regret as the world slipped further and further from his grasp was that he hadn't gotten the chance to say goodbye to Katsuki. His last words to his mother had been "I love you", but his best friend had only heard his pitiful sobs.

Fantasy began to blur with reality as he slowly suffocated. He imagined All Might's powerful voice echoing through the street, promising that Izuku would be ok. Even though his jaw was being held open by the sludge pouring into his mouth, a smile tugged at Izuku's lips as he pictured that iconic smile.

A massive burst of wind whipped around him, the pressure more intense than the sludge had ever been. It lasted only a brief moment, but for Izuku it seemed to last an eternity. Then, the pressure was gone, and he could breathe once more.

He gulped at the air greedily, the world finally regaining some color as his oxygen starved brain began to function once more.

He had just enough time to discern a streak of white and gold that raced around him before he slammed into the ground and his world went completely dark.

* * *

"Hey, kid! You alright?" The powerful voice managed to pierce through the fog that had overtaken his mind.

Izuku blinked as he tried to place the voice. It wasn't his mother's gentle admonishments, or Katsuki's harsh but somehow heartfelt jabs. No, this was even closer to home. It reminded him of the All Might alarm clock that woke him up every morning. In fact, it was eerily similar.

He craned his neck to get a look at the speaker, and felt his jawbones crack as his jaw dropped. Standing over him was ALL MIGHT HIMSELF IN THE FLESH!

He was even more impressive in person, a literal wall of muscle and charisma that no other person could ever hope to match, and that no camera could ever adequately capture. Izuku had watched every second off All Might footage again and again, and he still felt himself awestruck by the sheer presence of the hero before him.

"A-A-A-ALL MIGHT!" He cried, scurrying backwards as fast as he could, trying to keep from invading his hero's personal space.

"Glad to see you're still kicking!" All Might said. His smile didn't change, but it somehow seemed to grow even more brilliant as Izuku watched. "Sorry to get you caught up in my work. This city's sewers turned out to be much harder to navigate than the ones I'm used to."

Izuku spared a brief moment to wonder when exactly All Might found time to navigate city sewers, then dismissed the thought immediately. It was probably related to hero work, maybe even the mole villain he had captured a few weeks ago.

"Anyways, it appears I owe you my thanks young man. Thanks to your delaying him, I managed to capture the villain!" At this, he held up a pair of large soda bottles that had been set at his side. They were filled with a viscous green liquid that shifted as Izuku watched. He could even see one eye floating in the sludge that glared petulantly at him.

Wait, had All Might just thanked him? That was ...insane. No one would ever believe that _**he **_had managed to help All Might. He needed to record this moment for posterity. And get All Might's autograph. Maybe several autographs. Except that might annoy All Might…

As Izuku reached for his notebook, which was resting on top of his backpack next to him, he saw that it was open to a previously blank page, one that was now filled with All Might's iconic signature.

"He already signed it!" Izuku called, rather redundantly. His brain was still running several steps behind the conversation, though whether that was due to the shock of meeting his favorite hero so suddenly, or the lingering effects of oxygen deprivation was anyone's guess.

"I'm always happy to meet a fan!" All Might said, dropping into a squat and stretching his legs out. "But I must be going now. Thank you once again for your assistance, and be sure to always eat your vegetables!"

"Wait! You're leaving? But I…"

All Might held up a hand to stop him. "A hero's work is never done! Stand back now, I'm taking off!" His muscles tensed, sending small cracks into the pavement below his feet.

Even when he looked back on it later, Izuku wasn't quite sure what possessed him to grab on to his hero. It was a terrible decision really, but Izuku had felt compelled to lock his arms around All Might's leg just before the hero launched into the air.

He regretted the decision almost immediately, as the wind pressure threatened to tear his cheeks off, but he didn't let go.

He'd come this far after all, so he would ask his question or die trying.

* * *

Katsuki kicked the bottle that some idiot had left lying in the middle of the street viciously, cursing as the cap came undone and a few drops of the liquid within splattered on his uniform. The bottle went skipping off into the gloom at the edge of the alley he was making his way though.

He had been wandering aimlessly through the town since his encounter with Izuku. A part of him hoped that he would run into him, but he knew that was ridiculous. Izuku had bolted off in the complete opposite direction and was surely doing everything he could to avoid Katsuki.

He understood the feeling. He'd known going in that the talk was going to be awkward and painful for the both of them, but Katsuki had pushed through it. He needed Izuku to know how foolish his career decision was, to change it to something more reasonable.

He could understand why Izuku wanted to be a hero, he really could. For most people, being a hero was a childhood fantasy, something to daydream about with little hope of actual success. They didn't have the drive, the power, or the skills to actually pull it off, and they knew that. Izuku, on the other hand, was different.

In some ways, he was the perfect candidate for a hero. He was the best Quirk analyst Katsuki had ever heard of, able to break down a Quirk's strengths and weaknesses within minutes of a new hero's debut. The strategies he came up with were inventive too, taking advantage of people's preconceptions or assumptions thanks to his often nonlinear thinking. He was dedicated too, if for the wrong reasons. That boy did not have an ounce of quit in him, despite the world being stacked against him. Sure, he was wimpy beyond belief, a pacifist, and more than a little socially awkward, but those were things you could get over with a little training.

That made it all the worse that Izuku couldn't use his Quirk. When they were little, Katsuki had had complete faith that Izuku would discover and master his ability in no time at all. But then the years had passed, and reality had set in. There was a reason invisible Quirks were regarded as a permanent condition.

Without a Quirk, Izuku would be nearly useless on a battlefield, only a liability to his teammates or himself, and Katsuki couldn't bear to see that happen to him.

Izuku had been the one person to stand by him since they were kids. When everyone else had turned, he had stayed loyal, had refused to see Katsuki as anything other than the hero he wanted to be. And he stayed with him, enduring insults and attacks from the idiots at their school. For that, Katsuki would owe him for the rest of his life. He would protect him for the rest of his life, even if that meant hurting him in the short term.

He just wished it didn't make him feel so damned guilty.

A deep chuckle from behind Katsuki distracted him from his thoughts. He spun around, ready to give the idiot who had decided to try and mug him a face full of nitroglycerine.

Instead of an unfortunate criminal, Katsuki found himself facing an empty alley. He frowned. He could have sworn he had heard someone…

Palms still popping faintly, he turned back to his original path, only to be engulfed in a tide of sludge.

"Quite the Quirk you have there!" The deep voice seemed to be coming from all around him. "I'll be sure to make great use of it once you're gone!"

Katuski couldn't even express his disgust and anger properly, as the moment he opened his mouth to insult the villain, it was filled with an indescribably disgusting sludge.

* * *

Despite the speed they had been flying at, Izuku felt almost no impact as they landed on top of an office building in the middle of the city. All Might absorbed it all, and let Izuku down with one swift motion.

"That was very foolish of you young man. You could have been seriously injured." All Might scolded him.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but I really need to talk with you!."

"Young man, I enjoy chatting with my fans, but right now I do not have the time. Now, stand clear." He tensed once more, ready to take to the sky, taking Izuku's chance for an answer away forever.

"I just… Can I be a Hero, even without a Quirk?" Izuku's words came in a rush, less spoken than poured from his mouth.

Across from him, All Might froze mid squat.

Izuku took this as a sign to go ahead, not that he could have really stopped himself even if All Might had left. The feelings he'd been keeping inside for so long were coming out one way or another.

"I've always wanted to be a hero, ever since I knew what a hero was. But, when I was four, the doctor told me I have an invisible Quirk. And I've tried to learn how to use it, I really did, but nothing worked. I'm basically Quirkless…" he sighed. "And I need to know, can I become a hero like you?" He raised his head, trying to meet All Might's eyes for the first time since he had started speaking.

Instead, he met the bright blue eyes of a complete stranger. He was gaunt, almost skeletal with long hair that hung over his face. His clothes hung loose around his body as well, enhancing the impression of someone skinnier than he should be.

Izuku couldn't help it. He screamed.

* * *

It took several minutes for Izuku to calm down, and even more for All Might to prove it was really him, and not just some imposter. Even still, Izuku had trouble believing that this sickly person could be the greatest hero in the world.

The sight of the scar on All Might's side distracted him from his doubts.

"I got this about five years back in a fight with a villain. It messed up my lungs, destroyed my stomach, and the surgeries have left me totally drained. It's all I can do to keep up my hero work these days."

"You mean from the fight with Toxic Chainsaw?" Izuku inquired.

All Might frown slightly. "I'm kind of impressed you know about that fight. But, no, it's not from that fight. This was from an undisclosed villain attack, and I want it to stay that way." He shot Izuku a significant look.

Then he sighed, and leaned back against the railing, staring into the sky absently. "Why do you want to be a hero?"

For a moment, Izuku wasn't quite sure how to respond. Why?

"To...to help people. To inspire them. To...to just be a hero."

"A noble sentiment." All Might said. "One that I hope you keep up in whatever career you choose. The world can always use more people with ideals like yours. With them, you could make an excellent police officer, or firefighter, or any other type of public servant."

He lowered his head to meet Izuku's gaze. "But, to answer your question, no. You can't be a Hero without a Quirk. You'd just be a danger to yourself and your teammates."

He groaned as he slowly rose to his feet. "I'm sorry you had to hear it this way, but it's better that you know now. I wish you luck young…?"

"Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya." He responded. His voice didn't sound quite right. It was like it was coming through a long tunnel.

"Young Midoriya. I'll make sure to leave the door unlocked for you." He said as he opened the metal door that lead down from the roof. "And please remember to keep my secret."

Izuku nodded, but made no move to follow the skeletal form of the world's greatest hero. Instead, he stood at the edge of the roof, looking out over the bustle of the city.

Up there, far from the crowd, he felt very small, almost inconsequential. Like no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to him.

At least that meant there was no one to hear him sob to himself for the second time that day.

* * *

Izuku could hear the commotion from blocks away, but for once he didn't feel the need to run to see whatever battle was taking place. He just couldn't muster the same enthusiasm that he always had.

The world seemed to be painted in gray and black once more, though this time Izuku had no near death experience to blame it on. Instead he had a broken heart and a shattered dream that left him feeling tired and listless.

Despite his apathy, Izuku still found his feet turning toward the commotion. Maybe it was due to habit, year after year of chasing heroes giving him a subconscious attraction to conflict. Maybe a part of him wanted to lose himself in heroic fantasies like always as a way to soothe the aching pain in his chest. Or maybe he just didn't want to be alone with his thoughts any longer.

Whatever the case, Izuku quickly found himself pushing through the crowd of onlookers to see what sort of villain was causing such a ruckus.

The first thing he noticed was the sludge. Eerie green and constantly flowing, just like it had been when it was wrapping around him, trying to choke the very life from his body. He realized with a start that the villain must have gotten away from All Might when Izuku grabbed onto him. He felt sick at the thought that he had helped a villian go free, even accidentally.

Next he saw the uniform, the familiar black collared jacket with it's first few buttons undone in a not so subtle rejection of authority. After that, the distinctive mess of spiky blond hair that Izuku would know anywhere.

The last thing he saw were the eyes, the same eyes he had known since childhood, always full of irritation, playful mockery, or most often, determination. But that wasn't what Izuku saw now. No, his best friend's eyes were filled to the brim with fear and helplessness, a look so foreign and so wrong that Izuku almost didn't recognize it.

Those eyes filled Izuku's vision until he could see nothing else. He didn't even blink as his feet started to move once more, as he ducked under the water streams restraining the crowd, and rushed forward into the fray, heedless of his own safety as he rushed to help a person in need.

* * *

The street burned around him as Katsuki fought for his life. He twisted and thrashed, firing off explosions at every opportunity. Nothing worked. The sludge was impossible to grab, simply flowing around his blows. His explosions weren't doing much either. He couldn't get a proper angle to apply any real force, and any real blast that would harm the villain would harm him too.

He was the only one trying to do anything about the situation too, despite the crowd of onlookers that had formed at a relatively safe distance. They were just standing there, watching him slowly choke to death, waiting for a hero to show up to save the day.

There were a few heroes there, local guys that Katsuki had seen around. He'd even respected a couple of them. Kamui Woods had seemed like a fighter to him, but he was too scared of the fire that was surrounding him to venture anywhere near the alley.

They were all afraid, too scared of being hurt to do anything to save him.

Katsuki could feel the burning coal of anger in his stomach cooling rapidly, as anger gave way to fear. His muscles were weakening, and his vision was growing dim. He didn't remember the last time he had been able to take a breath, not that the smoke filled air that surrounded him would be very breathable.

He wanted to shout at the crowd to do something, anything to save him! But he couldn't. In the end, he was just as useless as they were, waiting for some hero to come and help him.

A cry went up from the crowd as someone broke through, racing toward the villain in a mad charge.

With a start, Katsuki recognized Izuku's fluffy green hair and wide, terrified eyes.

_What the fuck are you doing?!_

* * *

_What the hell am I doing?_ Izuku thought as he dashed towards the villain.

He hadn't realized he was moving until he was halfway down the alley, and by that point, it was much too late to turn back.

"You again? Learn to take a hint kid!" the villain called.

A tendril of sludge lashed towards him, and Izuku barely managed to dodge out of the way. He was basing his movements on the training he'd watched Katsuki do at the Lair over the years, but he didn't have his friend's strength, speed, or balance. He'd never participated in any of the training, and was now regretting that immensely.

A second tendril grazed his backpack, and an idea flashed through Izuku's mind. He remembered his notes on Kamui Wood's fighting style, his memory jogged by the brief glimpse of the hero he had caught before his charge, and more specifically on the way he used his Quirk to obscure his opponent's vision.

It wasn't a perfect substitute, but Izuku took his chance. He grabbed his backpack in one hand and hurled it at the villain, spinning to build up some momentum.

He couldn't see exactly what happened, but he heard the villain roared with pain and saw the sludge draw back slightly.

Seizing his chance, Izuku closed the rest of the gap and tried desperately to claw at the sludge that was holding Katsuki in place.

"Get out of here you idiot." Katuski shouted. HIs voice was harsh, damaged from both the smoke and the near strangulation.

"I can't just leave you Kacchan!" Izuku cried.

"Then you can die with him!" The villain cried. He had recovered from whatever injury that had been dealt to him, and was swinging a tentacle towards Izuku.

He couldn't do anything to stop it. He didn't have anything else to throw, or anyway to block the attack. The only thing he could do was brace for the inevitable.

Behind him, he could hear the heroes rushing forward, try their best to reach him in time.

In the end, he realized that he had proved All Might correct. He had only been a burden that put other people at risk.

* * *

The strike he was waiting for never came.

Instead he heard a meaty thud as the blow impacted something in front of him. He opened his eyes to see something incredible.

All Might ws there, blocking the villian's strike with single arm. Blood dripped from his mouth and arm, but he was still standing tall, trademark smile firmly on his face.

"I really am pathetic, aren't I?" He said. He was trembling from the force of the blow, and from the effort of maintaining his transformation well past the time he should be able to use it.

"I told you the traits that make a great hero, but I see now I wasn't living up to them myself."

He reared his free arm back, tugging Izuku and Katsuki free with the other, as if they weighed no more than a couple of dolls.

"The true mark of a hero is going beyond what was possible, and making the future they desire a reality! That's the meaning of PLUS ULTRA!" he cried.

"Damn you, All Might" The villain was preparing to strike as well, but he never got the chance.

All Might's Detroit Smash hit with the force of a hurricane, extinguishing the fires in the alleyway as it passed through. The villain was completely blasted apart, turning into a fine mist that would take him hours to pull back together into something resembling his original form.

It was the single greatest display of power that either of the boys had ever seen, one that would stick in their minds for years to come, along with the sight of their savior standing tall before the cheering crowd. From the onlooker's perspective, nothing was visible except for All Might's stunning grin.

Only Izuku and Katsuki could see the lines of blood that ran down the back of his arm and neck, proof of the struggle the fight had been for the great hero.

* * *

"Why'd you do it?" Katsuki asked, the first thing he'd said to Izuku since they'd been released.

Despite the bombastic nature of the incident, there hadn't been much debrief for either of the students. Izuku had gotten a tongue lashing from the heroes about his reckless actions, while Katski had gotten praised for his bravery in the face of a near death experience. Afterwards, a medic pronounced both the boys slightly bruised, but ultimately alright. They each received some ointment and instructions to go to a hospital if anything changed.

"I don't know." Izuku replied. It was partially true. He knew the stunt he'd pulled had been dangerous, irresponsible, and may be even unnecessary. He also knew that he would do it again in a heartbeat if someone needed his help.

"Bullshit." Katsuki said, his words harsh, but his tone soft. Like he was afraid Izuku would break again if he didn't use kid gloves.

There was a long moment of silence while Izuku contemplated what to say. Katsuki was hurting, that much was obvious, and Izuku didn't want to add anything to the pile. But even he could tell that lying to his friend would only sour their relationship. It might even break the friendship that had endured so much throughout the years.

So instead, he told the truth.

"You looked like you needed help."

Katsuki stiffened, his purposely slouched posture disappearing in an instant, replaced by the picture of a much different person. Someone thoughtful, and almost calm.

This time, it was Katsuki who let the silence hang, an uncomfortable pause that was somewhere between companionable and hostile. Some blocks later, he finally spoke up.

"I didn't need help."

"Okay Kacchan."

"Seriously. I would have been fine."

"Okay."

"All you did was distract the guy and nearly get killed in the process."

"I know"

"…."

"Thanks" He said, voice just barely audible.

Izuku smiled softly at that. "You're welcome Kacchan."

"…"

"You're still an idiot."

* * *

They were just getting ready to part ways when Katsuki held out a hand to stop Izuku. Then, he reached into his bag and pulled out a paper which he handed to Izuku.

It looked smaller than he remembered, and it was more than a little crinkled, but it was still legible.

He was holding Izuku's career survey, untouched by whiteout or erasers. 'UA High-Hero course' was still written in Izuku's carefully bolded handwriting right in the center of the paper.

Izuku looked up from it to meet Katsuki's gaze. His friend still looked unsure, the doubt plainly written in both his face and eyes. Even so, he shook the paper once, indicating for Izuku to take it.

He did, holding it close to his chest, as if he was afraid the wind would rip it out of his hands.

Katsuki turned on his heel with nary a word. His posture had returned to its usual slouch and as Izuku watched him go, he raised a hand and shot Izuku the finger.

He could only smile. Things weren't back to normal between them, and they might never be, but that gesture, more than anything else, showed that they were on the right track.

* * *

The day had been a rollercoaster of emotions for Izuku. From the highest highs to the lowest lows, he'd gone through much of the range of human emotions within just a few hours.

Now it seemed the universe was going to play with him one last time.

All Might had appeared from nowhere, sliding around a corner in a burst of wind and dust. The last time Izuku had seen him, he had been surrounded by reporters clamoring for a sound bite. He briefly wondered how All Might had managed to get away, a question that was quickly answered when All Might reverted to his skeletal form. Steam filled the street, and Izuku could feel a few flecks of blood land on his arm as All Might coughed violently.

It was somehow even more disturbing to see the transformation a second time, because this time Izuku understood what it meant. The invincible symbol of peace was fallible, weak even.

It changed everything. But for Izuku, it was his words more than his presence that were shaking the world.

"Young man," All Might said, his voice resonating through Izuku even in his skeletal form. "You _**can**_ become a hero."

Izuku sobbed openly. He didn't have the strength left to resist the tide inside him. He'd put on a brave face for the heroes, for Katsuki, but he couldn't smile any longer.

All he could do was continue to sob as relief flooded his system and the weight he had been carrying for all these years finally fell from his shoulders.

Thank you very much for reading! Your enjoyment means the world to me.

My current plan is to update this every two weeks, but that interval may get longer once I start University in about a month. Hopefully it won't be too bad, but who knows.

If you have some feedback, a question you don't feel like leaving in the comments, or just want to chat, feel free to hit me up at

I can also be found lurking in Epsilon1101's discord. Come check it out, and meet some cool people; /fZGEXzW

Thank you once again, and have an excellent day!


	3. Enter Stage Left

Despite All Might's best efforts to calm him down, it was several minutes before Izuku was coherent enough to speak without breaking into fresh rounds of sobs.

"I'm...I'm sorry for crying so much, it's just...you don't know how long I've been waiting for someone to say that to me."

All Might's smile softened somewhat.

"I know kid. Hell, I know better than most what it's like to suffer through that. But that time is over now. I have deemed you worthy to inherit my power. My Quirk is yours, if you want it."

That was what shook Izuku fully from his stupor. He wasn't sure exactly what he had though All Might would tell him after stating that he could become a hero. A long lost secret of heroism? A mantra to say to himself while he trained to make him stronger? The brand of All Might's lucky underpants?

But the idea that Izuku could inherit the hero's Quirk was insane. It was unbelievable. It was impossible.

"Wha….What do you mean?

All Might smiled indulgently. "Young Midoriya, do you know what my Quirk is?"

Izuku started to answer, then hesitated.

The obvious answer was that it was a strength enhancing Quirk, but on a scale the world had never seen before. That was the most popular online theory, if you discounted the crackpot theories like him being a secret telekinetic and trying to fool the villains by fooling the public. But because it was so obvious a choice, everyone believed that.

He'd been asked in multiple interviews about the nature of his Quirk, but he'd never given anything resembling a real answer. If it were something so simple, then would All Might have really bothered to hide it? There had to be something more.

Izuku racked his brain, but he couldn't come up with anything else it could be. No other kind of Quirk fit with the abilities All Might demonstrated on a near daily basis. The only other option was that it was a type of Quirk that no one had documented yet.

If that was the case, Izuku knew he had no chance of guessing it. Quirks were so unique to the individual and so varied that he would have better chances trying to guess the number of sand grains in a desert.

"It...it's some kind of strength enhancing Quirk, right?"

All Might hummed at that. "You're half right, but that also means that you're half wrong. And it's a very important half."

All Might held his arms out in front of him, as though he was a preacher delivering a sermon.

"You see, my Quirk isn't just mine. It is like a sacred torch that was passed down to me. It's a power that grows with the user, each person cultivating it before giving it to the next. And now, it's your turn." At this, he held out a hand to Izuku though there was nothing in his palm to take.

"This...this is…" Izuku was having a hard time wrapping his brain around the idea. It was so antithetical to everything he knew about the way Quirks worked. He'd read countless textbooks and articles about Quirks in an attempt to understand his own unseen ability and hopefully unlock its power. There had been so many theories, many of them contradictory, but they had all agreed on at least one thing. Quirks were an individual ability, and one biologically bound to the person who was born with it. Certain facets could be inherited by a person's children, though mutations did occur, but even inherited Quirks were unique to the person who used them.

This flew in the face of everything the world knew, or believed it knew, about Quirks. If people found out about this, it would change the way they thought about the world, about each other. It might even…

"Stop nerding out!"

The call shocked Izuku from his muttering as effectively as a gunshot.

"Look, you're just gonna have to accept that I can pass my power onto you. Otherwise we're never going to get anywhere with this. And we still have a lot to cover if you want to learn about the power you're going to inherit."

Maybe it was just a trick of the light, but when All Might held out his palm once more, Izuku could swear that a faint golden glow emanated from the palm. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. There was nothing there, but Izuku could feel something. There was power in that palm, of that Izuku was certain. And it was at that moment that he knew All Might was telling the truth.

"The true name of this Quirk is One For All." As he spoke a hint of the commanding presence of his muscular form slipped into his voice. It was deeper than it had any right to be and it carried a force that Izuku couldn't even begin to describe.

"One For All…" He echoed softly. He stumbled a little over the foreign sounding name, but something about it...felt good to say.

"That's right. A chain of power that reaches back generations, every user devoted to fighting for the greater good, to saving those in peril. That is the truth behind my power, the power that lets me save so many people. That is One For All."

"That's...that's incredible." In the face of such conviction, such dedication to heroism, Izuku felt his own resolve begin to waver. "But, why would you give it to me? I don't...I don't think I could live up to it."

The hero seemed to deflate a little before he spoke, but he pressed on anyways.

"I was there you know, when you saved that boy. Just another bystander, unwilling to put my life on the line for what I believed in. But you… you weren't. In that moment I knew you had moved without thinking, that something inside of you called out to save him and you acted on impulse. That, my boy, is the mark of a true hero. And that is how I know you will do this power proud."

HIs heart swelled. This wasn't just acknowledgement, or acceptance.

All Might was saying that he had faith in Izuku.

That he believed in him.

"I...I'll do it!" Izuku said, trying to put as much certainty as he possessed into those words.

A hand came to rest on his shoulder, a light yet reassuring touch.

"I'm glad to see you're so motivated, because you'll need it. You wish to enter UA, correct?"

Izuku nodded. "Of course. It's the best hero school. And your alma mater!"

"I suspected as much. You've chosen a hard road for yourself Young Midoriya, one that will require you to work like you've never worked before. But, if you listen to my instructions and follow your training to the letter, we'll turn you from Zero-"

He reached out and lifted Izuku's arm into a classic flexing pose. It was only slightly bigger than All Might's own skeletal limb, and the bicep sagged slightly instead of flexing. Izuku blushed, but All Might pushed past it.

"To Hero!" He exclaimed, shifting into his muscular form and flexing. Even though he was careful to keep his strength under control, a few small cracks appeared in the pavement beneath him.

It was an impressive display, though it was somewhat ruined when he deflated in a puff of steam a moment later, blood erupting from his mouth as he coughed deeply.

"Huh?" Izuku said, the display of infirmity derailing his thoughts.

"You need training my boy!" All Might said, sound surprisingly enthusiastic given the amount of blood he'd just lost.

"Within One For All lies the power of all it's previous wielders. If you were to inherit it as you are now, your body wouldn't be able to handle it. Best case scenario, you'd blow your limbs off the first time you even thought of using its power."

Izuku swallowed nervously.

"Relax!" All Might chuckled, grinning down at the green haired boy. "We should have just enough time to whip you into shape before the entrance exam. We might even be able to get in some community service while doing it!"

His smile faded a bit as he stared at Izuku again. "Make no mistake, Young Midoriya, this will be the training of your life. You won't have the time to take it easy for even a second. Are you prepared for that?"

Izuku nodded immediately. Training personally with All Might? It was practically a dream come true. He couldn't wait to get home and tell….

Katsuki. Who'd stuck with him through thick and thin, who'd fought off bullies countless times for him. Who idolized All Might at least as much as he did. Who had gotten hurt because of his mistake.

"A-All Might, sir?"

"Don't call me sir, makes me feel old!" All Might said jokingly. "What is it?"

"Can...Can Kacchan train with me?"

"Kacchan?"

"He's...He's my friend. He was the one who was getting attacked by the villain." Izuku swallowed, but pushed through his nerves. Sure, he was asking for a favor from the world's greatest hero right after the man had offered his power to Izuku, but he couldn't back down now. Katsuki deserved a chance too, and Izuku was going to get it for him, or die trying.

"He's training to be a hero too, but the only place where he can work out is the Lair." All Might frowned in confusion at the name, and Izuku realized he had no idea what that was. "It...it's the place where we hang out after school. It's basically just a clearing in the woods with some big rocks in it. He uses them to train but… He would do a lot better if he had a real gym."

Izuku shuffled his feet nervously. He was trying to be as clear and precise as he could, but there was something about All Might's stare that made him nervous. He'd never really talked about Katsuki's situation with other people. Most of them would simply dismiss his words outright, and the rest would listen right up until he said the word "Villain". He could only pray that All Might would be different.

"He's tried to get into a few, but they won't let him have a membership, because they think he's dangerous or something."

All Might frowned, and Izuku hurried to correct his statement before the hero got the wrong idea.

"He's not dangerous! I swear! It's just… when we were little kids, he was showing his Quirk off for us, and me and a couple other kids got hurt. It was a complete accident, and Kacchan felt terrible about it but... no one would listen. They had already decided he was going to be a villain after just one mistake."

Izuku hung his head. "He's not though. He's gonna be a hero, a great one! So I just…" He looked at All Might once more, unable to read any expression on the hero's face. "He's been my only friend for years now. I wanna help him like he's helped me."

At that, All Might's face softened. "You have a kind heart, Young Midoriya. Under different circumstances, I expect you would have a great many friends, the kind who would stick with you through thick and thin, and aid you in the toughest of training."

Izuku felt his heart begin to swell. He'd done it! He'd-

"Unfortunately, your friend will not be able to train with you. The workout I am going to be giving you will be for you, and you alone. The training as well. If your friend aids you, you may not be ready in time for the entrance exam."

Izuku deflated at his words. He should have known. It was too much to ask of the hero so suddenly. Maybe if he'd waited, or tried a different way of asking, he could have-

"That said…" All Might cut his thoughts off before they could spiral too far out of control. "I won't leave the boy high and dry. I owe him that much at least, since the villian who attacked him escaped from my custody."

Izuku winced, remembering his own part in letting the villain get away.

"Instead, I'll give you this." All Might reached into his back pocket and extracted a card from his wallet. It was a plain business card, the name 'Sweat and Tears' written in simple black text. On the back was a phone number and an address near the edge of Mustafu.

"When I was recovering from my injury, this was the gym that I attended. It's small, but the staff are extremely competent, and specialize in discretion. No one will bother him over a label from childhood, particularly if he comes with a recommendation from myself. Your friend will be mostly on his own for the training, but if he makes the best of his time, I have no doubt that he will reach his goal in time."

Izuku's legs felt like jelly as he slowly slid to the ground, relief flooding through him. This was all that he could have ever hoped for. Sure, he and Katsuki wouldn't get to really train together, but that was a small price to pay.

They were on the path that they had dreamt of since they were children.

They were going to be heroes!

* * *

Katsuki hissed as an envelope bounced off of his head.

He wasn't hissing from pain, his mother had tossed it underhand after all, but rather from surprise. He had been completely absorbed in his textbook, and was vastly irritated at being interrupted.

"The fuck was that you old hag?" He called after the retreating form of his mother.

"It's called a letter. They're like text messages, but they don't even need cell service!"

"I was asking why the hell you threw it at my face!" Katuski growled.

"I called your name, but you weren't paying attention." His mother said, leaning back into the room as she spoke. "Sides, with how jumpy little Izu looked while he was dropping it off, I figured it was important, and you'd want it right away." With that, she flounced off.

Katuski picked up the letter and turned it over in his hands. Why the hell would Izuku send him a letter? Sure, he was still a bit pissed at his friend for his antics the other day, and would probably have ended up biting his head off if he had come over in person, but Izuku could have texted him.

He felt the letter curiously. There didn't seem to be very much inside, just a couple pieces of paper.

Shrugging, he tore the envelope open in one swift motion. A simple business card for some place Katsuki had never heard of fell out, followed by a carefully folded scrap of notebook paper.

The message on the paper was short and to the point, which was pretty unlike Izuku. Katsuki had no doubt that he had spent several hours agonizing over the words, trying to get them to sound the way he wanted.

_Kacchan-_

_I'm going to be taking the Hero Course Exam this year, and I've found someone who's going to train me so that i can make it._

_He knows some people who own a gym, one where you can train. Really train, not just lift a few rocks in the woods._

_Meet me at the starting line._

_Izuku_

Katsuki stared at the letter for a long time, reading it over and over again as he struggled to process its contents.

When he finally did move, it was one, simple motion. He curled his first around the note, crumpling it into a ball in his hand. Then, the paper began to burn as sparks from his palm ignited it. The wisps of smoke curled around his face as he grinned broadly.

"Bring it on you damn nerd. I'll see you there!"

He rose to his feet, textbook completely forgotten. After all, he had training to do.

* * *

All Might hadn't been kidding. The months that followed were absolute hell for Izuku. He spent practically every day training his muscles until they refused to move. Then he studied until he could swear the knowledge was running out of his ears.

It was hard, brutal work, but Izuku faced it head on. He needed to challenge himself, to push his limits as far as they would go and then go beyond. That was the only way he would be worthy of All Might's power. That was the only way he would become the hero he had always wanted to be.

Slowly, day by day, the trash covered beach that All Might had assigned him to clear began to show patches of sand. They marked his progress, and made his job harder. He had to fight for balance with every step, and often found his feet sinking into the soft sand when he was carrying something particularly heavy.

Several months in, he finally caught sight of the ocean after dragging a car out of the way, and found himself crying at the sight. It wasn't beautiful in the traditional sense. There was still far too much trash in the way to make an acceptable view. It was, however, undeniable proof of his progress.

From that day on it seemed like the task became easier every day. He could carry a little more, run a little further, stand a little straighter. It never got easier, All Might saw to that. He made sure that Izuku never stopped pushing himself.

Seeing that progress though made it possible for Izuku to keep going. Even when All Might reprimanded him for overworking himself, Izuku simply thought back to that strip of blue water visible through the mounds of garbage and he knew that he could do it. He knew that he would do it.

He was going to make it to the starting line, or die trying.

* * *

Izuku's stomach was twisting itself in knots as he made his way to the UA campus. He had done his absolute best to prepare for the exam, both mentally and physically, but he still couldn't shake the feeling in his gut that something was about to go terribly wrong.

Or maybe that was just the lingering effects of "inheriting" All Might's Quirk.

Once again, All Might had managed to buck Izuku's expectations. He'd been expecting some sort of ceremony to accompany the passing of the Quirk, with ethereal lights glowing around them and some suitably inspiring music.

Instead All Might had simply plucked a single hair from his signature V and ordered Izuku to eat it. Izuku had balked at the idea, but All Might insisted. In the end he had no choice but to swallow the hair. Izuku had been exceptionally thankful that All Might's hair spikes were natural, instead of being the products of hair gel.

He swallowed as the massive entrance gate to UA came into view. It was probably just his imagination, but he could swear that the sour taste from the hair grew stronger at the sight. He certainly hoped it was a sign that the transfer was working. Despite having taken two hours to return home for a shower and a change of clothes, Izuku still didn't feel any different than he had this morning.

He was sure it would kick in soon. It had to. If it didn't then he was totally screwed. And he couldn't fail All Might like that.

He did his best to push his nerves down as he took his first step onto the UA campus. His second step refused to come, however. His body was frozen in place, muscles completely unresponsive to his commands.

"Well, well, well. Looks like I lost the bet." Said a familiar voice from behind him. "I thought you'd never have the balls to show up. I'm glad to be wrong though. I get a front row seat to watch you fail." Izuku couldn't see the malicious grin on Shindo's face, but he could picture it perfectly. He'd seen it more than enough after all.

One of the worst parts of Shindo's Quirk was the inability to respond. Izuku wanted to point out that UA probably separated people from their middle school classmates, to prevent anyone from gaining an unfair advantage. Instead, all he could do was stand there while Shindo mocked him.

"I mean, seriously. Watching you run around like a chicken with its head cut off is gonna be hilarious. I could probably get internet famous if I uploaded some footage." He chuckled to himself, before leaning close to Izuku, speaking directly into his ear. "You should be careful in there though, Deku. Who knows what could happen to a Quirkless loser like you…"

Suddenly, Izuku could move again as Shindo stepped off his shadow. He stumbled forward, trying to regain his footing. Shindo's Quirk always left him feeling a little off balance for a minute or so after he was released. Something to do with the inner ear's alignment getting disrupted by the paralysis.

By the time he managed to get his feet back under him, Shindo was long gone, leaving Izuku with a vague sense of unease.

_Of course he would be here. _Izuku thought to himself. _His Quirk is really useful, so he's a shoo-in for the hero program. I should have thought of that._ He must have changed his first choice to UA after hearing that Katsuki and Izuku were planning to attend. After all, he would never allow himself to be shown up by the pair.

Sighing, Izuku realized he would probably be thinking about what Shido had said for the rest of the day. He didn't believe the other boy would actually do anything to him during the exam. Even Shindo had limits after all. His words had a way of sticking with Izuku though.

As Izuku stepped forward towards the UA building once more, the tip of his shoe caught on the edge of a protruding brick. In his still addled state he wasn't able to regain his balance in time, and went careening face first towards the brick.

_Guess I'll just die then_ He thought morosely as pain and humiliation approached him.

A hand grabbed his shoulder, the grip strong and firm. A moment later Izuku found himself suddenly weightless. It was a slightly disorienting experience, having the ground taken away from him even though he could still see it. He flailed in surprise and confusion, trying to regain his balance. Thankfully a second hand was placed on his leg a moment later, guiding him back to the ground. With his feet returned to earth once more, Izuku felt much better.

"Sorry for using my Quirk on you without asking." His savior said. "I just thought it would be bad luck for you to fall right before the exam."

She was slightly shorter than him, with bobbed brown hair that seemed to float slightly whenever she moved her head. The smile that was on her face was so open and welcoming that Izuku almost did a double take. It had been years since anyone looked at him like he was anything other than pond scum, and he had forgotten how...nice it felt.

"I...uh...yeah...t-thanks!"

Her smile somehow managed to brighten, nearly blinding Izuku. "Of course! I'll see you around!" With that, she skipped off towards the building, an aura of happiness radiating from her.

_She was so nice! _He thought happily. _Maybe there will be other people like her here. And I could make friends again!_

With that thought, Izuku's mood rose significantly. Shindo's taunts and his own myriad of worries had been completely forgotten when faced with the prospect of friendship.

* * *

Katsuki was nervous, a fact that was pissing him off to a probably unhealthy degree.

He had no reason to be nervous. The written exam was going to be challenging, but he'd passed every one of the mock exams with flying colors. The practical would probably be even easier. His Quirk had grown in leaps and bounds recently and his physical skills had grown to match thanks to his time at the gym Izuku had directed him to. The place didn't have much of a martial arts focus, but Katsuki had leveraged the space and equipment to become significantly more dangerous than he had already been.

So why the hell did he have a knot of worry in his stomach that refused to go away?

In his desperation he'd even tried a few of the calming exercises his parents were always pushing him to use. They hadn't helped his nerves in the slightest bit, and instead had helped to drive up his blood pressure when he heard people snickering at him as he breathed slowly in and out. A single glare from him was enough to send most of them scurrying away but the whole exchange left a bad taste in his mouth.

_These_ were the other UA candidates? They were just like his classmates at Aldera, happy to talk shit about their betters right up until they faced consequences. Then they suddenly remembered they had somewhere else to be.

It was pathetic, honestly. Not a single person he had seen so far had anything resembling the attitude of a real hero. He could see it in their empty eyes. They don't have a hero's fire, the drive to be better than everyone else around you, no matter the cost. They haven't had to stand tall while everyone tries to beat them down.

They didn't have the same eyes as a real hero, the same eyes as _him._

As if summoned by his thoughts, a familiar voice came from behind him at that moment.

"Oh! G-good morning Kacchan!" Izuku said, doing his best to sound cheerful and failing utterly. "Are...are you feeling ready for the exam?"

A lot had changed in the last ten months. Katsuki and Izuku had hardly spoken to each other, each devoting themselves to their own training. Their promise to meet at the entrance exam had kept each of them going beyond where they might have given up on their own. And now they were here, their promise fulfilled, and neither really sure how to continue.

It was Katsuki who broke the moment of silence between them.

"Fucking course I am. Exam ain't gonna know what hit it."

Izuku's smile was much more genuine now. "I'm glad to hear it. The competition looks really tough this year. I saw tons of cool Quirks on my way here! I saw a guy with peacock feathers, but they looked really sharp, and I think he can shoot them like darts, and then there was this girl who made her hands giant, and this other girl who—"

Katsuki held up a hand to forestall the info dump he knew was coming. Izuku would happily talk about every single Quirk he had seen that day, in exhaustive detail, complete with theories about how they could be used in hero work if given the chance.

"Save it for later. If you're gonna make me listen to Quirk talk again, you can at least buy me ramen first."

Izuku looked so ridiculously happy at the prospect that he reminded Katsuki of a puppy that had just been thrown a treat.

"That's perfect Kacchan! We can go over how we did on the exam too!"

Katsuki grit his teeth at the implication. He still didn't like the idea of Izuku participating. UA varied their exams every year so prospective students couldn't practice for what was coming, but there was never a year where the exam didn't involve some sort of combat.

"Izuku, tell me honestly. Are you going to be ok?" Katsuki stared directly at his friend, hoping against hope that Izuku would change his mind at the last minute.

Izuku slumped. "I...I don't know. I trained _really_ hard and All...Toshinori said I should be able to use hi-_my _Quirk at this point. But I just don't know."

"It's not too late to turn back. Support course works pretty close with the hero course. They make some cool shit too."

He shook his head. "I can't Kacchan. The whole reason I trained so hard, the reason I _could_ train so hard was so I could be here today. So I could fight _with _you, not be protected."

His eyes met Katsuki's. "I want to be a hero Kacchan. No matter what."

In that moment Katsuki truly hated the world they lived in, because only the cruelest of gods would give the plebeians around them powerful and useful Quirks, and ignore the only true hero among them.

"Izuku…... don't get hurt."

He nodded. "I'll...I'll do my best."

"Fuckin better, cuz I don't want to have to deal with the world's most annoying ghost if you die like an idiot." Katsuki grinned as he spoke.

"Hey!" Izuku cried, in mock indignation.

They both grinned, the tension that had grown between the nearly dissipating in the face of a decade old friendship.

Katsuki turned to leave, but was stopped when Izuku grabbed his arm.

"Kacchan, I…." He swallowed. "Thank you. And, I know it goes without saying, but good luck on the exam today. I know you're gonna do great"

A part of him bristled at the implication that he would give anything less than his absolute best, but it was easily overwhelmed by the warmth filling his chest.

Finally, after nearly a year apart, he and Izuku were standing together on the battlefield, two best friends against the world. Just as it should be.

"You too." With that, Katsuki walked away. He was so focused on the exam now that he didn't even notice that the knot of tension in his stomach had entirely disappeared.

* * *

Luck seemed to be in Ochaco's favor today. She'd managed to get a full eight hours of sleep despite her nerves, and wake up before her alarm went off leaving her plenty of time to get ready. Breakfast had been a bit on the light side, but she was used to that. She could push through a little bit of hunger for the sake of her dream. Besides, she was too nervous to eat a big meal today anyway.

She made excellent time on the way to UA's campus, thankful that she'd mapped the route ahead of time. She did get stuck at one crosswalk for what felt like hours, but was probably only a minute or two. She hopped back and forth from foot to foot while she waited, irritating the other commuters standing around her, but not caring one whit. After all, she had something much more important on her mind.

And then she had even managed to help someone out before the exam. If that wasn't a good sign, she didn't know what was. Sure, she hadn't done more than prevent him from tripping, but it still felt good. She had taken her first step towards being a hero before the exam had even started.

* * *

_You've got this Ochaco!_ She thought, doing her best to psych herself up for the coming practical exam.

The written portion of the exam had been rough. She had needed to guess on way more problems than she felt comfortable with, but in the end she had managed to answer every question with a few minutes spare to review her answers.

Now, however, she was staring down the absolutely huge testing area which had been designed to look like a generic urban environment, and freaking out a bit.

Her mind boggled at the amount of money it must have cost to build this, not to mention the amount it would take to maintain it. A small part of her was furious, imagining how even a small chunk of that money could change her parent's lives. She quashed it though. It wasn't as if they were spending the money on frivolous things. This area was for training future heroes so they could protect the largest number of people possible. It probably even saved money in the long run, since it would teach them to keep property damage to a minimum.

Continuing the trend of UA demonstrating their monstrous resources, their opponents for the exam would apparently be robots, designed and custom built by UA themselves for this express purpose. They were designed to act like the criminals they might someday encounter in their hero work, apparently including some limited ability to mimic common Quirks. She wasn't quite sure how that worked, but it did set her teeth on edge.

In an attempt to calm herself, she fell into the familiar rhythm of her yoga stretches. Her mother firmly believed in the healing powers of yoga, and as such had been teaching Ochaco the poses since she was young. They had been an excellent way to destress while she was here in Mustafu, since every time she did them, she felt like her mother was standing behind her, just out of sight.

A commotion coming from behind her distracted her from her stretches and she turned to see what the fuss was about.

A tall boy in glasses that she vaguely remembered from the information session for the practical was telling someone off for attempting to sabotage the other applicants . She was pretty sure he'd been the one to ask a question about the different types of robots they would be facing, and then tell someone off for muttering. He gave off the impression of being extraordinary uptight, though that might have just been due to nerves.

With a start, she recognized the boy the taller one was interrogating. He was the one she had kept from falling before the exam. What little confidence he had regained while talking to her seemed to have evaporated in the face of the other boy's lecture.

_Ok. Time for round two!_ She thought to herself as she walked towards the pair. A few of the other applicants had formed a loose circle to watch the spectacle.

"Everything OK here guys?" She asked the pair when she had muscled her way through the onlookers.

The boy with green hair jumped in surprise. "Oh! I was just—We were—"

"I was preventing him-" he paused to indicate the green haired boy "from interrupting the exam again by disrupting the other applicants. Yourself specifically."

Ochaco blinked in surprise.

"I-I wasn't trying to distract you! I just wanted to thank you for helping me earlier!"

"Regardless of your intentions, you were-"

"It's okay!" Ochaco interrupted. "We're friends, so I guarantee he wasn't doing anything nefarious. And I'd say your lecture is the thing disrupting exam most right now." She gestured at the onlookers.

The taller boy jerked in surprise, as if he'd only just noticed the people watching them. The crowd, now seeing that the spectacle was over had begun to dissipate quickly, but a few stragglers remained, hoping for the spectacle to continue.

"I didn't...it was not my intention to…" The taller boy began haltingly.

"It's...uh...it's okay." The green haired boy said. "You were just trying to help."

"Still, I committed the same error I was accusing you of, for which I apologize. I will endeavor to do better in the future." He bowed to them, lower than was really necessary or even warranted. "Now, I should make good on my own words and leave you to prepare in peace. Pray excuse me."

With that he turned on his heel and marched away, every movement stiff and precisely controlled.

_Definitely a case of nerves_ Ochaco thought to herself.

"Um...Thanks. Again." The green haired boy said, drawing her attention back to him. Once again, she found her eyes tracking directly to the scar that ran from his forehead and down the right side of his face, a thin white line that crinkled when he frowned.

She immediately felt bad for fixating on the mark, sure that he was sick of people staring at it. Instead, she focused her attention on his eyes, not letting herself look anywhere else on his face lest she make the same mistake again.

"No need to thank me. I'm sure you'd have done the same thing for me. Friends look after each other, yeah?"

He blinked in surprise at that. "Friends?" He said in obvious disbelief.

She felt her stomach drop. Sure, they had just met, but there was something about the boy that made him easy to like. She hadn't been lying before. A part of her had been hoping they would both make it into UA, so that she could have a friend to talk to from day one.

Still, as her mother always said, the best way to make friends was to go up and ask.

"Yeah. I haven't been in town for very long, and I was kinda hoping you wouldn't mind being my first friend here?" She put on what she hoped was a friendly smile.

The boy practically lit up in response, smiling like he'd just won the lottery. "Yes! I'd love to be your friend!"

_Well, that was easier than I thought_. She smiled

"I'm Uraraka Ochaco" she said, sticking her hand out towards him.

He took it while wearing what could only be described as a million dollar smile. "Nice to meet you Uraraka! I'm—"

"**START!"**

A booming voice echoed across the group out of nowhere, causing everyone to jump. They cast their eyes all around, trying to see where the voice had come from. A moment later, someone pointed to an elevated platform where Present Mic was standing, microphone in hand.

"Well?!" He called to the crowd. "What are you waiting for? Villains aren't going to wait for you to pull your boots on! Get going!"

For several seconds no one did anything, too busy processing the hero's words. Then someone took a step and pandemonium took hold. Nearly every applicant broke into a dead sprint, trying to be the first one to enter the city.

Ochaco and the green haired boy looked at each other, their hands still clasped tightly. At the same time their faces hardened as looks of determination overtook each of them.

"Good luck" Ochaco said, giving his hand a small squeeze.

"You too." He returned the squeeze. "You can do it!"

With that, they let their hands drop and broke into a dead sprint behind the other applicants.

* * *

The first robot Ochaco encountered took her by surprise, and nearly took her out of the fight all together.

She was trying to get away from the main group so she ducked into a side alley and came face to face with a wall of hulking metal. She leapt back in surprise. Hearing about robots in the briefing and actually seeing the things were two completely different experiences.

It was at least two feet taller than her, a mass of metal plates with a single glowing "eye" at the center of its head.

It was currently regarding her with what seemed to be a surprised look of its own. The eye at the center of its head was opened wide and was tracking up and down her body. One of its arms was raised over its head, but not in an overtly hostile manner. It looked more like it was in the process of trying to break a nearby window when she had encountered it.

The surprise didn't last long for either of them. As the robot turned towards her and prepared to bring its oversized fists down on top of her, Ochaco lunged forward and slapped her hand directly onto its chest. The robot immediately became weightless, and she sent it careening into the air with a shove. The moment she thought it was high enough to break on impact, she released her Quirk and sent it tumbling back to earth.

The crash was enormous and sent shards of concrete and pieces of robot spraying everywhere, forcing her to dive for cover behind a nearby trash can.

All told, the exchange lasted less than a minute, but to Ochaco it had felt like an eternity. She slapped herself all over, checking that all the important bits were still attached and undamaged. Satisfied that she was okay, she popped out of cover and went to check on her opponent.

It was still mostly intact, though it was missing quite a few miscellaneous screws and a few of the seams between plates had burst.

Whatever material they had constructed the robots out of seemed to be extremely durable, but also very light. She had been worried about the robots exceeding her weight limit when she first heard about them, not wanting to be incapactitated after the first exchange. Instead, lifting the robot had only caused a slight twinge in her stomach, roughly akin to lifting a person.

She smiled to herself. _In that case…_

She dashed back to where the main group was fighting, slipping through the melee and laying her hands on every robot she could get near. A few wild shots from other applicants came near her, but most of them seemed to have it under control, a fact that she was very grateful for. As she ran, bot after bot went careening into the sky. A few were picked off by various ranged attacks before she could drop them, but the majority were sent crashing back to earth when she released her Quirk.

It was a healthy amount of points, and the thought sent excitement running through her. It was more than enough to offset the slight churning of her stomach.

_I've got this!_ She silently cheered to herself as she moved off once more, eagerly searching for her next group of opponents.

* * *

Robots

Of course it would be freaking robots! God forbid the mighty UA have an exam that wasn't completely biased towards people with physical Quirks.

Hitoshi Shinso growled to himself as he ran around yet another corner, trying yet again to lose the robot that was chasing him. Unfortunately, it continued to be remarkably persistent in its tracking, following at a similar pace to his own while smashing its way through obstacles that Hitoshi had to leap over or dodge around. He had a bit of ground on it currently, but it was closing in worryingly fast.

Since his Quirk was off the table against non-human opponents, Hitoshi had opted to go with a tried and true method of eliminating opponents; a lead pipe to the head. There had been a pile of the pipes lying near the entrance to the testing area, which Hitoshi guessed were for the students who needed a weapon to make their Quirk effective.

Unfortunately, it had barely made a dent in the robot's head, despite him swinging it as hard as he could. He'd immediately dropped the pipe and sprinted for his life, hoping that the robot would ignore him in favor of a closer opponent. He hadn't been lucky though, which lead to his current predicament.

He was so focused on keeping his breathing as even as he could that he didn't even see the loose piece of concrete that sent him sprawling. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, but by that point it was far too late. Three robots now had him surrounded, each managing to loom over him despite several feet away.

_I'm fucked_ He thought to himself as he raised his hands above his head. Without his Quirk, his best hope was to hope they were programmed to accept his surrender, and wouldn't just beat him up.

"Hope youre happy, you dumb hunk of metal" He said bitterly, addressing the lead robot

The robots beeped at that, a series of quick tones that reminded Hitoshi of laughter. Being laughed at by a robot set his teeth on edge even more so than being laughed at by his classmates.

It only lasted a moment though. As he watched, the lead robot froze mid beep, then dropped its arms to its sides in what looked like a neutral stance. Hitoshi braced himself for whatever attack was coming, but after nearly a minute of waiting, nothing happened.

The other robots were acting as confused as Hitoshi felt. They beeped at their companion curiously, but it didn't respond. It almost looked like it was in some kind of trance.

An idea occurred to Hitoshi, and a small smile appeared on his face for the first time since this exam began.

"Raise your right arm." he ordered. A moment later, the robot followed his command.

The smile widened to a full on grin. Apparently UA hadn't just been filling a checklist when they had asked for prospective students to explain their Quirks in detail when they were applying. They had been gathering data to program into the exam. And now, months later, it was paying dividends.

He wasn't truly controlling the robot. His Quirk didn't work on robots, only people. It was more like he'd been given Admin control after it had responded to him.

Either way, he had a way to fight back now. Sure, he'd have to be clever about how he used his new "weapon" to keep it from regaining control, but he was more than willing to put in the work if it gave him a chance.

He opened his mouth to give some more orders, prepared to slip into the shadows in the confusion he was about to cause. He was interrupted before he got the chance though.

A figure rocketed out of the sky, landing just in front of Hitoshi. He caught a flash of spiky blond hair before a pair of explosions ripped out of its hands, turning the two non-brainwashed robots into so much scrap. Not even a second later, another explosion destroyed the last robot.

The rapid fire blasts left Hitoshi's ears ringing and his lungs filled with smoke. He coughed furiously, trying to clear his throat, but only succeed in pulling more into his lungs.

"Fucking amatuer" Said a harsh voice from just in front of him. "You know you're supposed to fight the robots, not get surrounded, right?"

Hitoshi coughed angrily at the boy standing in front of him. He was slightly shorter than Hitoshi, which was made more pronounced by his slumped stance. The look he wore on his face said more about him than anything he could have said.

He looked like arrogance personified, and Hitoshi hated him immediately. The expression he wore was the same one that so many of his classmates had worn while they mocked his villainous Quirk. It was the look of someone who thought they were superior in every way to the person they were talking down to.

The blonde boy didn't say anything further, just clicked his tongue once and blasted back into the sky on a pair of twin explosions.

Hitoshi glared at the rapidly retreating form. A part of him wanted to chase after the blonde, to send the arrogant bastard wandering around the arena for the rest of the exam. It would serve the dick right, but Hitoshi had other things on his mind.

Instead, he set off towards the opposite edge of the testing area. He still needed to pass the exam after all. This time, however, he felt confident that he could do it.

He was about to show everyone what he could really do..

* * *

Ochaco was pleased with her performance on the exam so far. She had a good number of villain points under her belt already, and by her reckoning she had nearly four minutes left to go. She'd also managed to help a few other applicants out of tight spots, which might not have earned her any points, but it did make her feel good.

She had trouble viewing the other applicants as competition. The school may have been trying to pit them against each other by having them compete for a limited number of points, but she couldn't help but think that they would all do much better if they worked together, or at least in small teams.

A rumble passing through the ground interrupted her thoughts and knocking her and several other applicants off balance. She managed to keep her feet under her thanks to her practice navigating in zero gravity, but it was a close thing.

Once she had her feet back under her she looked around wildly, trying to spot whoever or whatever had caused the disruption. She figured the shaking must have been caused by something big, powerful, or both.

She got her answer a moment later when a truly massive robot pushed its way through a pair of buildings down the street. Steel beams bent under fingers the size of tree trunks while concrete and glass simply shattered, sending shards spraying into the street below.

Ochaco blanched. In the briefing, Present Mic had talked briefly about the Zero Pointers, but his description had failed to convey how truly terrifying they were. There was something primal that made her want to scurry away and hide under a rock in the face of such might.

Ochaco and the other applicants found themselves frozen in fear. All they could do was stare in wide eyed terror as the behemoth robot finished pulling its way through the piles of rubble that had been a pair of buildings less than a minute ago.

Its head moved side to side as it surveyed the area in front of it, then paused as it finally caught sight of the examinees. It stared for a moment, as if evaluating the motionless students in front of it. Then its eye turned dark red and it began to move towards them.

That broke people from their stupor and they began to flee, not caring one bit which direction they went. Ochaco followed, but she didn't push her way through the crowd like some did. She stayed at the back of the group, willing those in front to move faster but keeping an eye out for anyone who had fallen, ready to help at a moment's notice.

A massive crash came from above her a moment before the arena became covered in dust. The behemoth had decimated another building in a single strike, sending dust and debris over a huge chunk of the area.

Ochaco had a brief moment to panic over losing her ability to see more than five feet in front of her before something slammed into her legs. She smashed into the ground before she could put her hands out and her chin bounced off the pavement, blurring her vision.

She tried to crawl along the ground, pushing through the dizziness with her desire to get away from the oncoming danger. Her legs wouldn't move, however. A heavy weight was pressing them down, pinning her completely to the concrete.

She could feel the ground rumble as the behemoth closed in on her, causing her teeth to shake in her gums. She knew she wouldn't even be a bump in the road for its massive treads.

She cried out in pain, in fear, in desperation. It was a cry of inarticulate emotion, one that she knew in her heart was fruitless. The other applicants were too far away, and too focused on their own survival to pay attention to her. She was all alone, with death bearing down on her.

And then a blur of green caught her eye as it hurtled toward her.

* * *

It wasn't a conscious decision. One minute Izuku was trying to crawl away from the monstrosity that just _leveled a building oh shitohshitohshit!_

The next, he heard a cry of fear, the cry of someone who desperately needed a hero. He turned, and with a start, he saw her. The girl from the entrance exam. Uraraka. His friend. In danger.

His limbs filled with energy, warmth spilling through him and burning away all his fears and doubts, leaving only one option. Action.

He leapt up, passing through the fingers of the behemoth bot as it leaned down to grab something. He climbed higher and higher until he was level with the behemoth' s face. All Might's voice echoed in the back of his head, the only instruction he had given Izuku on wielding the power that was now burning inside him. He clenched his butt cheeks as tightly as he could, and screamed with everything he had.

"**SMASH!**"

The robot's head crumpled like paper under the force of the blow, spitting sparks wildly as metal folded and systems shorted. It began to fall backward, and Izuku had a brief moment of panic. He hoped no one was behind it. He'd hate to save one person, only to end up crushing someone else in the process.

Then a whole new worry took precedence as gravity claimed him once more and he went hurtling toward the ground.

* * *

One second, the green blur was running towards Ochaco, the next, it had leapt into the air, streaking into the sky while it emitted an incoherent cry.

When it reached the top of its arc, the blur slowed, and she was finally able to resolve it. The plain boy, her first friend in the city whose name she still hadn't gotten, was nearly even with the behemoths head, legs hanging awkwardly and arm cocked back into a fist.

A single strike was all it took to fell the seemingly unstoppable robot. Ochaco could feel her jaw drop at the sight. Beyond her, every other applicant did the same.

They had been focused on running away, on saving themselves above all else. And then the boy who had seemed so weak and helpless, who had done little more than cry for the first half of the exam, who they had all written off as a weakling and a coward had decimated an opponent they hadn't even tried to touch. It was a humbling experience for all who witnessed it, and left many of them questioning what exactly they were doing at the exam.

Ochaco felt the rubble that was pinning her in place shift slightly, enough that she could jerk her legs free. The process left her missing several patches of skin on her knees and palms, but she hardly even noticed.

What did catch her attention was the scream coming from above her. It was rapidly increasing in both pitch and volume as she listened. She craned her neck up and saw the hero of the hour plummeting toward certain death, legs flopping crazily in the breeze as he wept openly.

_He can't stop himself!_ She realized with a sense of panic. Thinking fast, she grabbed a piece of destroyed robot, and used it as a platform to boost herself higher. She reached as far as she could, willing her fingers to go that little bit further, willing herself to stop her new friend falling to his death.

The slap she landed on his face wasn't gentle, nor was it exactly how she wanted to help him, but it did save his life, and that's all Ochaco could really ask for.

His momentum slowed to a crawl, and he landed with barely a thud on the pavement. She released her Quirk with a sigh, happy to finally be safe.

The boy, apparently, disagreed. Despite his obviously broken limbs he dragged himself forward, muttering furiously about needing to get just one point. Ochaco felt her eyes boggle. He was that strong, and he hadn't even gotten a single point? What the heck had happened?

She wanted to help him out, but the only robots left in the area were in pieces, and with what appeared to be a pair of broken legs, he wasn't getting up anytime soon. Sighing, she laid back on the chunk of robot. In the distance, Present Mic called the one minute warning for the exam.

A familiar rumble passed through the ground, and Ochaco shot to her feet. Somehow, the behemoth was getting back up. It's head was almost totally crushed, and was hanging by a few wires, but the eye at the center still glowed an ominous red.

Her mind kicked into overdrive. If she grabbed the boy and ran, they might be able to put enough distance between them and the behemoth to escape when the exam ended. It's the sound, logical plan, the one she should take. But she just can't take that option now. The green boy had charged in, heedless of the danger, in order to save her. Doing any less herself would be insulting to him.

So, she did the only other thing she could think of, and charged the robot, slapping her palms against the massive form. Up close it seems even more enormous than before, but she didn't shrink away from it. Instead, she flooded her Quirk into it even faster, willing the gigantic piece of metal to lose its connection to one of the fundamental forces of the universe.

For a long moment, nothing happened. The behemoth's massive form quivered slightly as it tried to rise, but didn't budge. Her face was flushed with effort, and her stomach was twisting itself in knots, but she refused to let go. She _had_ to do this. She had to stop this villian, both for herself, and for everyone who was counting on her.

She imagined she could hear them behind her, cheering her on, telling her that she was strong enough, that she _could _do this.

She cried out, willing her mind and body to go even further beyond, and ever so slowly the behemoth began to float. She hooked her fingers underneath the massive frame and heaved with all her strength. It spun, massive treads rising into the air as its shoulders were scraped along the ground.

Finally, after an agonizingly long time, the wires holding the behemoth's head on its shoulders snapped, sending the head skipping off as the light of its eye faded.

She released her Quirk, and the behemoth's limp form fell once more with a ground shattering boom.

_There. Everyone's safe. _She thought to herself.

Unbidden, her eyes roved over the still form of the robot, realizing yet again how enormous it really was.

_You know, I don't think I've ever lifted anything that big before._

With that final thought, her vision turned black and she collapsed into an unconscious heap on the ground.

* * *

Izuku was completely worn out, to the point where he was stumbling every few steps. Even All Might's training had never left him this tired. Recovery Girl hadn't been kidding about the side effects of her Quirk.

It also didn't help that he was feeling incredibly depressed about his performance. He hadn't even managed to get a single villian point, and after all the training All Might had given him. He really was the absolute worst.

He stumbled into someone standing by the entrance gate, the third time he had hit someone since he had left the infirmary, and scrambled to apologize to them.

"You look like a fucking corpse" Katsuki said eloquently.

Izuku nearly jumped at the familiar voice. He had been so focused on not breaking down in the middle of the courtyard that he hadn't even recognized his friend.

"O-oh. Hey Kacchan." He said, more to fill the silence than as an actual greeting.

He was about to leave, ready to walk home alone and wallow in his misery when Katuski placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked.

"I...uh...home?" Izuku said, suddenly unsure.

"Like hell you are. I was promised ramen this morning, and I will not be denied."

Izuku cast his mind back to the half remembered conversation from that morning. It had only been a few hours ago, but somehow it felt like a lifetime had passed since then. He and Katsuki had made plans to get ramen after the exam.

"Kacchan, I'm not really—"

"Save it." Katsuki said, with surprising force. "I blasted my way through an army of robots today, so all I want to do is stuff myself. And not on that vegan shit my dad's always making. I mean real, delicious, meaty ramen. And while I do that, you're gonna give me the rundown on the Quirks you saw today. I wanna be able to blow those posers out of the water in our first combat class."

With that, he set off in the direction of the ramen stand they had been visiting since they had discovered it four years ago. He didn't so much as glance back in Izuku's direction, confident that he would follow him.

A moment later, Izuku felt his feet turning the same way. He was still bone tired, and his emotions were all over the place, but he did have to admit that a warm meal and a willing ear sounded pleasant.

* * *

Two hours later, Izuku was feeling significantly better. His stomach was pleasantly warm and full, his nerves had calmed, and his mind was buzzing with ideas for notes to add to his Hero Analysis book. He'd definitely have to start a new volume at this rate. The last volume had been three-quarters filled before today, and there had been sooooo many different Quirks on display.

He walked home with a skip in his step, mood completely turned around. After all, there would be time to freak out about his performance later. For now, he had to get his notes down while he could still remember everything.


	4. Day One

Izuku hadn't heard from All Might in almost a week. He'd tried to get in contact with the hero the day after the exam and every day since, but he was unable to reach him. All his calls went straight to voicemail and the texts were left on read.

It was only fitting. He'd failed both All Might and UA. He'd failed himself as well. All that training, all that work hadn't been worth a single thing when he'd been given a chance. All he'd done was dent a single robot and had nearly destroyed himself in the process.

He could try again. UA did sometimes accept second year transfers, but the rate of acceptance was even lower, the bar so much higher. And without All Might to help him Izuku didn't know if he could manage it.

He hung his head even lower, until it was practically between his knees. His mother had tried to lift his spirits, but to no avail. Even Katsuki hadn't been able to lift the funk that had fallen over him for more than a few hours. Sooner or later his thoughts turned back to the exam, and his failure.

Idly, he squeezed the grip trainer in his hand. His workouts had become such a habit that he hardly even had to think about them now. Some would call that a blessing, but at the moment he wasn't sure he agreed. With his body occupied, his mind drifted and his fertile imagination had plenty of time to spin up a myriad of different scenarios for what people would say when they heard about his failure.

"IZUKU!"

He jumped at the cry. His mother had burst into the room with none of her usual gentle grace. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she held an envelope out to him.

"Your results! They came!"

A strange combination of relief and dread filled him. Finally, he could stop wondering how they would break the news to him. He'd heard plenty of different versions of the speech through the years. His mother's tearful apology, his classmate's malicious jeers, Katsuki's harsh rebuke, and All Might's gentle dismissal. Different words, different tones, but all with the same meaning.

"Thank you." Izuku said softly, taking the letter from his mother's hands. "I think… I think I'll open it in my room, if that's ok?"

She nodded, a worried look on her face. No doubt she had been expecting him to be as excited as she was. She didn't know what had happened in the exam. He hadn't wanted to hurt her by talking about the danger he'd been in.

Before he could leave, she grabbed his arm and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Izuku, just remember that no matter what they say, I'm so very proud of you. Okay?"

He managed a small smile in return. "Thanks mom."

* * *

When the image of All Might appeared over his desk, Izuku nearly fell out of his chair. He knew UA always had the best tech, but holograms were only just starting to make their way to the public sector, and they didn't have projectors nearly that small. The fact that UA could deliver the results to each of the students this way was truly incredible.

He was so distracted by the delivery method that Izuku almost missed the first part of All Might's speech.

"I AM HERE as a projection!"

_Wait, All Might? But this is from UA. Why is he—?_

"I am sorry for not contacting you sooner, but as they say: with great power comes a great amount of paperwork!" He paused a moment to cough, then focused once more. "I apologize for deceiving you young man. You see, I didn't just come to this town to fight villains. You're looking at the newest member of the UA faculty!" He proudly proclaimed.

From off screen a voice came, telling All Might to hurry up so they could get to the next video message. All Might blanched a little when he heard the number they still had left to do, but recovered quickly.

"Anyways, about your performance during the exam. You passed the written exam with decent marks, though the proctor noted your essay on Quirk theory was excellent. Good job! As for the practical, you were not eliminated before the end, though you finished with a score of zero villain points."

Izuku hung his head in shame. It was one thing to know he had failed, and another to be told by his idol and quasi-mentor. A part of him had hoped that they would just give a pass or fail report, rather than reporting his actual results. Then he could have pretended that he barely failed, instead of knowing how much of a fool he'd made of himself.

"BUT!" All Might said, interrupting Izuku's thoughts. "Combat prowess was not the only thing we were testing for! UA never does anything by half measures, after all. But before we get to that, allow me to show you a short clip."

The projection was overtaken by what appeared to be security cam footage. In it, several Pro heroes that Izuku recognized as being on the UA faculty were in the midst of relaxing when a knock on the door disturbed them. When Present Mic answered, Izuku was surprised to see Uraraka there.

He'd been too out of it in the aftermath of the exam to remember what had happened to her, but he had assumed she had gone home, since he hadn't seen her again. Apparently he'd been mistaken.

When she offered to give some of her hard earned points to him, his jaw nearly hit the floor. They barely knew each other, yet here she was, willing to handicap her own performance for his sake. It was unreal.

He felt shamed. In the aftermath, he had only been thinking of his own performance, of himself. He hadn't asked how she was doing, or tried to find her. Some friend he was turning out to be.

"You made quite an impression on that girl." All Might said, a hint of pride in his voice. "And you did it not with your Quirk, but with your actions. Always remember that."

On screen, the clip that All Might had paused while he gave his speech resumed. Present Mic patted Uraraka's head in a manner he probably thought was reassuring but looked rather awkward to Izuku.

"No need to give the kid your points," The pro said. "He's doing fine on his own."

"That's right!" All Might said, closing the video player. "After all, how could a hero course reject someone who prioritized saving others over his own personal gain? That is why UA's exam includes a second scale!"

A chart appeared behind All Might showing various names and scores. Izuku could see Katsuki's name at the top of the chart, followed closely by Uraraka, and then several names he didn't recognize, before he reached his own name at the bottom of the chart. Next to each name were two scores, labeled "Combat" and "Rescue".

"There was a panel of judges observing the exam who awarded points based on heroic acts beyond just fighting villains. Your attempt to save young Uraraka truly impressed them! Therefore, with 55 rescue points you have passed the exam!"

Tears filled Izuku's eyes as shock and relief poured through his body.

"Congratulations, Izuku. You've made it. Your hero's journey starts here, at UA high. Welcome to the hero academia!"

He knew All Might couldn't hear him, but Izuku felt compelled to thank the man nonetheless.

"Thank you, All Might."

* * *

When Izuku started pounding on his door Katsuki was in the middle of celebrating his success at the entrance exam. He knew he'd done well, of course, but seeing his name at the top of the list had still given him a rush. The most competitive exam in the country and he'd smoked every self-aggrandizing bastard who'd applied. He couldn't wait to rub it in that smug prick Shindo's face next time he saw him.

The furious knocking distracted him from his reverie. He knew who it was immediately. There was only one person who would be that insistent this early in the morning. Izuku must have sprinted the entire way to Katsuki's house. The letters had come less than an hour ago after all.

Izuku was sweaty and red faced when Katsuki opened the door, and his expression was unreadable. "Kacchan I…I…"

"Spit it out ya damn nerd."

Izuku swallowed hard, then continued. "I... passed."

Despite knowing they were coming, the words still made him shake his head in disbelief. Katsuki's placement made sense. His Quirk was practically made for fighting after all. But the idea that Izuku, the nearly Quirkless wimp, had passed was something else. He hadn't just passed either. He'd placed tenth overall, beating out thousands of other applicants for one of the coveted spots.

It filled Katsuki with a strange sense of pride. Despite having everyone against them, he and Izuku had managed it. They were gonna show everyone what a true hero was made of.

He reached an arm around Izuku, grabbing the shorter boy by the collar. "Then why the fuck are you standing outside? Party's in here, dumbass."

A massive smile broke out across Izuku's face, as though he'd just internalized his success for the first time. He practically skipped into the Bakugou household, making his way to the kitchen where Katsuki's parents were fixing a massive celebratory breakfast.

Behind him, Katsuki allowed a small grin to creep across his face. "Hey, old hag!" He called. "Put some more food on! We've got a guest."

* * *

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Katsuki said flatly as Izuku finished his story.

"Watch your damn mouth!" His mother called.

"Bite me." He replied, not even glancing away from Izuku. "But seriously? Super strength? That was like the first thing we tested when we were kids. How did you miss that?"

Izuku took a moment to grab a drink of juice. He'd told the story of the entrance exam practically without pausing and seemed to only be realizing now that he was extremely thirsty. He drained the glass completely before replying.

"Toshinori, my trainer, thinks… he thinks my Quirk didn't show up because my body couldn't handle it. Like when your Quirk damages your wrists when you use too many explosions, but all over. So, now that my body can handle the strain a bit better, I was able to activate it!" He smiled proudly at the explanation.

"So you're telling me that you could have had your Quirk years ago, and the only reason you didn't get it was because you didn't do enough fucking pushups?" Katsuki said, voice deadly calm.

Izuku deflated slightly. "It's a, uh, working theory."

Katsuki sighed, and put his head in his hands. It sounded like complete bullshit to him, but if listening to Izuku's many lectures on Quirks over the years had taught him anything, it's that Quirks were often bullshit.

"Fine. Theory accepted," he said, rubbing his temples. "So, you have your Quirk. Think you can use it on command?"

Izuku looked at his hand, opening it and closing it a few times. "Maybe. I don't know. The last time I used it, I kinda broke my arm, so I'm not in a hurry to test it out."

"Teacher's gonna love that" Katsuki pointed out.

Izuku sighed. "I know. But there's still a month and a half before UA starts. I'll get it under control by then."

"I think you mean _we'll_ get it under control." Katsuki said, cracking his knuckles.

"I'll be, uh, fine on my own, thanks" Izuku said. "You need to focus on your own training, right?"

"Nah. This will be great training for both of us. You need to learn how to use your Quirk in combat, and I need to get experience holding back against people who are weaker than me. Two birds with one stone."

"Kacchan, I don't think I'm ready for combat training."

"You gotta get with the program Izuku. We're UA students now, with a new school motto. Know what it is?"

Izuku swallowed. "Plus Ultra?" He squeeked.

Katsuki nodded. "Plus Ultra."

The smile he wore was the same one that would someday haunt the nightmares of villains across Japan.

* * *

"So, what are our thoughts?" Principal Nedzu said, addressing the room.

"Not a bad bunch," Cementoss said. "Lots of potential, especially if you include the recommended students."

"I agree." Midnight said. "I saw a few that I can't wait to sink my teeth into."

"Please rephrase that, Miss Kayama." Nedzu cut in. "These meetings are recorded for posterity, and I would like to avoid dealing with another harassment lawsuit."

She huffed in response, but made no further comment, so Nedzu continued.

"Do any students in particular stand out to you? Remember, if you wish to mentor a particular student, the forms are due the week after the sports festival, so you should start thinking about it now."

The sound of shuffling papers filled the room as the teachers glanced through the files of accepted students.

Vlad King broke the silence. "Kid who came in first is packing a hell of a Quirk. He's got the martial skills to go with it too."

"True." Midnight agreed. "But he's got a chip on his shoulder that's bigger than I am. Only five rescue points, and he earned them almost accidentally. If he fixes the attitude, he could be a hell of a hero though."

Nedzu chuckled. "That may prove difficult, given what he's been through. Still, stranger things have happened. But let's move on. Anyone else?"

"Speaking of power," Present Mic cut in, several decibels louder than anyone else in the room. "The girl in second blew me away! When I saw her lift that zero pointer I knew she was going all the way!"

"Quite." Nedzu agreed, rubbing his sensitive ears. "Which reminds me. We'll need to update our file on her. Her abilities have grown quite a bit since her application was filed. That can be done during the Quirk assessments though."

"Sounds like a pain." Aizawa said, lifting his head for the first time in the conversation.

Nedzu shrugged. "Perhaps. But I expect you to put your best effort into it nonetheless."

Aizawa glared at the pint sized principal. "You have to be kidding. I did it last year. It's Sekijiro's turn."

"Turns are irrelevant." Nedzu said, his tone indicating that he would brook no argument. "You will be handling class 1A while Miss Kayama will take 1B. The rest of you will help me welcome the non-hero students."

He hopped to his feet, looking up at the rest of the teachers with a placid smile on his face that belied the devious mind beneath. Even as he spoke to them, none of the teachers doubted that he was spinning plans of how to craft and train the best heroes possible. He hadn't reached the pinnacle of UA's hierarchy by accident after all.

"Let's call it a day here, shall we?" He said. "Have an excellent weekend, and be sure to rest up. The real work begins on Wednesday." With a final wave, he stepped out of the room, leaving everyone else with a vague sense of unease.

"Why did I let you sign me up for this?" Aizawa asked Midnight once he was sure the principal was out of earshot.

She shrugged. "You had nothing better to do?"

"I could be sleeping. That would be so much better than having to deal with _first years_." He said the phrase like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"You could always sleep in the evening, like a normal person." Snipe pointed out.

Aizawa turned his glare on his fellow teacher. "Evening is the perfect time to hunt villains, something you should be acutely aware of."

"Yeah, not everyone's crazy enough to keep up hero work and a full time job like you." Midnight cut in. "I for one enjoy getting a full eight hours of beauty sleep."

"Same." Hound Dog agreed, prompting a chuckle from most of the room.

Aizawa huffed. "I have cats that need feeding. You try doing that on a government salary."

Present Mic laughed. "Aizawa, I've seen what Nedzu pays you. What the hell are you feeding your cats? Caviar?"

"I'm going to feed them your liver if you don't quiet down." He snapped ineffectually. He knew as well as everyone else in the room that there was no force on earth that would keep Mic from taunting him.

Vlad King tapped the table, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. "If you're quite finished, some of us still have work to do, so let's wrap this up. Shota, Nemuri, be sure to get those files back to Hizashi and I by the end of Wednesday. And please try not to spill anything on them. I hate having paperwork that smells like soup."

"It was one time! And I apologized!" Present Mic cried in indignation as he got to his feet.

The teachers filled out, one by one, until only Aizawa was left. He was staring at the role sheet for class 1A as though he could will it out of existence if he just concentrated hard enough. Unfortunately for him, hIs efforts proved fruitless. His Quirk only ever allowed him to erase other Quirks, not extraordinarily vexing pieces of paper.

"This is gonna be a long week." He said, tone resigned and hopeless.

* * *

Izuku had to remind himself over and over to just breathe normally. When he'd come to UA for the first time he hadn't been able to properly appreciate it due to his nerves. Now, however, he was able to properly geek out about the fact that he was inside the most prestigious hero school in the world.

Walking through the main hall was a tour de force of the school's alumni. Trophy cases lined the walls displaying replicas of the numerous awards and accolades its graduates had earned. Izuku saw names that dated all the way back to UA's first class, and every era since. There was even an entire trophy case dedicated solely to All Might.

It wasn't just the school that took his breath away either. The other students did a good job of it as well. He saw several upperclassmen who he recognized from watching the Sport Festival or from upcoming hero profiles that he'd found online. Every one of them looked so cool and confident, like they were absolutely sure that they belonged here. Izuku envied that attitude. He still felt like he was a fish that had somehow found its way into a very big pond.

He nearly fainted in excitement when he saw Ectoplasm turn the corner ahead of him. He'd known logically that many of the professors at UA were current or former pros, but seeing them in person was a wholly different experience. A part of him demanded that he try to catch the hero, and see if he could get an autograph, but he held himself back. That would just come off as creepy. Besides, he had three years at the school to get one. He could wait just a little bit longer.

Thankfully the school was laid out very logically, and Izuku was able to find his classroom in short order. The class number was written on the massive door in large red letters, leaving no doubt that Izuku was in the right place. In another place, the massive door and blocky letters would have seemed over the top, but they somehow fit in perfectly to UA's larger than life atmosphere.

He took a deep, calming breath. Somehow, the idea of stepping through that door made everything seem more real. Like he wasn't just going to wake up tomorrow morning to find that none of it had actually happened.

As he placed his hand on the door, he sent a silent prayer for his classmates to be nice. Ideally, both Uraraka and Katsuki would be there, but that was a long shot. More than likely, he'd be in a room of strangers that he would have to learn to get along with. Aldera had been a smaller school, so Izuku had known pretty much everyone there by name, which had seemed like a curse at the time. Now, however, Izuku found himself missing the familiarity, even if it had been a painful familiarity.

Hopefully he'd have time to get to know his classmates a bit. If UA was anything like Aldera, the first day would be taken up by welcome speeches and meetings. They would meet their new teachers, learn a little about what each class would entail, maybe do some icebreakers with their new classmates, and then head home. A nice, low stress way to start the school year sounded like exactly what he needed.

He opened the door in one swift motion, not letting himself chicken out for a moment longer.

His first impression of the class was pandemonium. It seemed Izuku was one of the last to arrive, and everyone had already started making friends. Several clumps of students were chatting with each other, though most seemed to be focused on the argument taking place on the far side of the classroom.

With a sinking feeling Izuku recognized the strict boy from the entrance exam. He had really been hoping that they would end up in separate classes. Izuku hadn't meant to irritate him during the exam, but it seemed like they were destined to clash.

It wasn't all bad though. The person who had drawn the strict boy's ire was none other than Katsuki, who was treating him to one of his trademark glares. It didn't seem to be working though, as the strict boy was continuing his lecture on properly respecting school equipment.

Izuku stepped forward. He wasn't much better than Katsuki when it came to dealing with people, but hopefully he could get his friend to take his feet off of the desk and apologize. It probably wouldn't do much to appease the strict boy, but it would be better than nothing and it would avoid the possibility of a brawl on the first day.

The second Izuku let go of the massive door behind him, it slammed shut with a mighty thud. Everyone in the classroom jumped in surprise. Then, they all turned to look directly at Izuku, who quailed under their stares.

Immediately, the strict boy broke away from Katsuki and dashed up to Izuku with impressive speed. Behind him, Katsuki got to his feet, palms already crackling with small explosions. Before he could do anything else, however, the strict boy reached Izuku, and dropped into a low and very formal bow.

"I apologize for my actions!" He said, tone forceful yet sincere all the same. "I judged you unfairly before the exam even began, and I let that impression cloud my judgement. I see now that you are an upstanding student, and a capable hero-in-training. Please, forgive my blunder." He stood and stuck one arm straight in front of him in the most awkward attempt at a handshake Izuku had ever seen. "I pray that this will not prevent us from getting along."

Izuku relaxed immediately. There was no hostility in his tone, only an awkward stiffness and an earnest energy that Izuku vaguely envied.

He took the boy's hand and gave it the best squeeze he could. "Of course not." He said. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's nice to officially meet you." He gave his best smile, though he was sure his nerves were extremely apparent.

The boy returned the smile, losing quite a bit of his stiffness as he did so. "I am Tenya Iida. The pleasure is mine."

The name tickled something in Izuku's memory, but he didn't get the chance to figure out why before he was interrupted.

"Oh! You're here too! I'm so glad!" Uraraka said. She had slipped in while he was talking to Iida, and was now standing behind him smiling broadly.

Izuku felt his heart swell. Even before he'd known about her attempt to share her points with him, he'd hoped that they could see each other again. He hadn't gotten the chance to thank her for saving him during the exam, or to talk to her after she said she wanted to be friends. Izuku dearly hoped the offer still stood. He hadn't been able to make a friend since Katsuki, so he had practically leapt at the chance.

"Y-yeah. I'm glad you made it too, Uraraka." He said.

She held up a finger to forestall him. "Wait. Before we get distracted, what is your name? We kept getting interrupted before you could tell me."

He blinked, then realized she was right. He'd gotten her name, but Present Mic had started the exam before he could respond to her.

"I'm Izuku." He said. "Izuku Midoriya."

"If you're going to socialize, do it after class." A new voice cut in. "Or better yet, don't bother coming at all"

It took him a moment to locate the source of the voice. Just behind Uraraka, a man with the appearance of a gigantic yellow caterpillar stared up at them tiredly. He rose in one fluid motion that had Izuku questioning everything he knew about physics before he unzipped the sleeping bag he had been wrapped in.

He was tall and lanky, with pronounced eye bags that gave him the look of someone who was half-dead. Most of the class seemed to be taken aback at the man's appearance, though Izuku, who was used to All Might's skeletal true form and penchant for strange entrances was only mildly perturbed.

The man clicked his tongue as he waited for the students to stop whispering about his appearance and sudden arrival. Only when the last of the whispers had died away did he speak again.

"It took you 30 seconds to quiet kind of response is illogical and unbecoming. Heroes need to be able to adapt quickly to any situation." He threw a stack of what appeared to be gym uniforms onto the nearest desk. "Now, put these on, and meet me outside. The field has been marked so you can find it."

"Umm, who exactly are you?" Someone asked from behind Izuku.

The man sighed dramatically before answering, taking a moment to rub at his temples. "Shota Aizawa. I'll be teaching you. Now, are there any other inane questions, or can we actually get started? The Quirk assessment will take up most of the day as it is."

"What about the opening ceremony?" Uraraka asked.

"The opening ceremony," Aizawa said, in a tone that implied he'd given this speech many times before, "Is an exercise in frivolity. It wastes an entire day that could be better spent on training the few students at this school who actually have the potential to become heroes. So, no you will not be attending the opening ceremony. Instead, you're going to show me if you are even worth teaching."

A ripple passed through the class at his words.

"We already passed the entrance exam!" A blonde boy near the back of the room called. "Isn't that good enough?"

Aizawa glared at him, and the boy shrunk back slightly, no doubt realizing that mouthing off was probably not the right thing to do in this situation.

"Congratulations, you beat a few robots. That doesn't make you a hero. Any civilian with a powerful Quirk could have done the same. A hero, even a hero in training, is better than that. They have strength, knowledge, and discipline in addition to their Quirk."

He spread his arms wide, and unleashed a sinister looking smile. "So, congratulations hero aspirants. Welcome to UA. Your first exam begins in 20 minutes." He started for the door, then stopped. "Oh. And it should go without saying, but anyone who fails this test is getting demoted to the Gen Ed course." With that, he stepped out of the classroom and slammed the door shut.

* * *

Katsuki was having an excellent day, and not even their shitty teacher could bring him down.

The tests so far had just been basic fitness exercises, pushups, side jumps, sprints, etc. The goals for the tests may have been absurdly high, but that wasn't bothering the blonde too much. He'd been training himself since he was a kid, and over the last year he'd taken that training to the next level. He wasn't placing first in every challenge, but when no one's Quirk gave them an advantage, he smoked the rest of the class, even if he didn't meet the goals their teacher set.

That was the other reason Katsuki was in a good mood. When he'd been stuck at Aldera, any use of his Quirk on school grounds would have been met with immediate punishment. With them always watching his behavior, the school had always felt like a prison. Here, though, he wasn't just allowed to use his Quirk, he was encouraged to use it.

There were only two things that were bringing down his mood. The first was their teacher. Katsuki had thought that he would be done with shitty teachers when he left Aldera, that a school as prestigious as UA wouldn't allow a bully to teach there. Apparently he had been wrong. The walking corpse of a man had wasted no time in berating them all for their performance. He'd had to grudgingly acknowledge Katsuki's performance, as well as a few others, but for everyone else, he'd been merciless in beating them down.

"This is the basics of basics for heroes." He'd said after a particularly poor showing by a group of students. "If you can't handle this much, then you're in the wrong career."

Katsuki felt conflicted about the whole thing. On the one hand, he almost agreed with The Corpse. Heroes had to be better than anyone else, both with their Quirks and physically. It was why he had trained so relentlessly. He was going to be the best of the best, and that meant being as strong as he could be.

On the other hand, he wanted to strangle the bastard. He was like Shindo wrapped up with their shitty homeroom teacher from Aldera. He got his rocks off by tormenting people who couldn't fight back, and it ground Katsuki's gears. He kept finding sparks crackling along his palms whenever The Corpse started laying into someone. At least he wasn't the only one. He could see indignation and anger building in a couple of the other students. He mentally upgraded them from extras to side characters.

The other problem was Izuku.

Despite their training Izuku still couldn't use his Quirk on command without breaking his arm as they had unfortunately confirmed just a week and a half ago. He was doing his best, but Katsuki could tell the pressure was getting to him. He seemed to be getting more worried by the second as the fear of demotion slowly drove him into a tizzy. Aside from that, The Corpse seemed to have taken special interest in Izuku, and was driving him especially hard. No performance was good enough, even when he placed near the top of the class in lifting strength.

Katsuki ground his teeth, but didn't interfere. If Izuku was going to be a hero, then he'd have to do things like this for himself. He wasn't the same weakling that Katsuki had to protect anymore. Izuku had the power to stand beside him now. He just had to learn how to use it.

* * *

In Shota Aizawa's opinion, the person who had invented the phrase "Like herding cats" was an idiot. Sure, they spent most of their time doing their own thing, but that was part of their charm. They didn't bounce all over the place, or jump all over you when you got home after a long day and just wanted to relax in front of the TV, and maybe cuddle a bit. They were the perfect companions.

No, if you wanted to portray the frustration of trying to control a group that refused to do what you said, the phrase should have been "like herding first years".

So far he'd thwarted five prank attempts, a near fight between Bakugou and Enji's boy, and threatened to give a detention to the next person who made a lecherous comment about their classmates. It was exhausting work, and had set him in a foul mood before the Quirk assessment could even begin. He couldn't wait to get back to his regular class, where they wouldn't even think of trying to pull this stuff.

There were at least a few who were impressing him. The Iida boy was as stiff as a board when he tried to interact with anyone, but he was putting on an admirable showing in the tests. Enji's son as well, though he was only using the ice half of his Quirk. Shota idly wondered if he was trying to gain more experience with that half, or if he was trying to fool his classmates into thinking he was less powerful than he actually was. Either way, Shota wasn't going to touch the issue with a ten foot pole.

Even some of the non-legacy students were doing admirably. Kirishima's Quirk wasn't helping him in any of the tests, but he was displaying a health level of determination, and physical abilities that few in the class could match. Katsuki was outright hostile towards Shota, as well as his classmates, but he was fighting for first place with the Yaoyorozu's child, which was a feat in and of itself. They were both displaying their Quirk's versatility and power.

If it weren't for the class's childish demeanor, irreverent attitude, and overall lack of practical skills, Shota might have even enjoyed watching them. Well, most of them.

Izuku Midoriya was a mystery that he really didn't want to have to deal with. His file was less than a quarter of the size of the rest of the class's which had intrigued Shota at first. He'd thought the boy was playing his Quirk close to his chest, an attitude he appreciated. Then he'd seen the footage of Midoriya fighting, and his opinion had instantly soured.

Forget hiding his Quirk, the boy hadn't even used it, and for good reason. When he did finally break his ability out, it had done more damage to him than his opponent. If it had been up to Shota, he would have failed the boy right then and there. Someone that reckless would never make a good hero, even if he did manage to get his Quirk under control.

Which was another mystery about the boy. He used his Quirk as if it were the first time, despite being almost sixteen years old. It was baffling. He should have been at least a little used to his Quirk by this point, not breaking his arms every time he used it.

Shota shook his head. A part of him had been hoping that the entrance exam had been a fluke, that Midoriya would reveal some hidden side to himself during the assessment. No such luck. His scores were above average for a first year, but nowhere near the levels required for this test, and so very far from super-human.

Not that it mattered. After today, Midoriya would be someone else's problem, and he would be far, far away from them.

* * *

Izuku was having a terrible day.

This wasn't so much of an assessment as it was physical torture. Even the training regimen that All Might had made for him seemed light in comparison. He was scraping by thanks to the training, but he was far from passing and that seemed to be making their teacher more irritated by the second.

Maybe it was because he hadn't used his Quirk. Most of his classmates were using theirs in one way or another to help them out. Katsuki was using his to great effect, and looked like he was having the time of his life as well. Izuku, on the other hand, was stuck with his human abilities. He wanted to use his Quirk of course, but he couldn't take the risk. If he tried to use it he would almost certainly break his arm, and that would be the end of the assessment for him.

The tests were getting harder too. The first half had just been basic fitness and strength tests, which Izuku had at least been able to compete at, even if he couldn't meet the crazy targets their teacher had set. Once those were done, Aizawa had given them a short break to grab water, and to set up the next tests.

During his training to inherit One for All, Izuku had focused almost entirely on strength and endurance, the abilities he'd needed to be able to handle the Quirk' s power. Consequently, he had almost no practical skills to go along with his new strength, something he was greatly regretting.

The second round of tests involved a parkour course they needed to complete in a set amount of time. Izuku could handle most of the hurdles well enough, but he got lost halfway through the course, and came in last place. Then they had to climb a crumbling embankment that collapsed whenever someone took too heavy of a step. Izuku's training on the sand helped him somewhat, though he still fell well behind those people who could use their Quirks to their advantage. Tests on marksmanship, recovering from falls, and balance followed. Aizawa even had them chase him around a mock city reminiscent of the entrance exam, seeing if anyone could flush him out of hiding. No one had passed that last test, which was of some small relief to Izuku.

Their final test was at least straightforward, though it was also one of the most daunting to Izuku. Shot put using their Quirks to get the ball as far as they could.

Katsuki was the first up, setting the standard like he had been all day. His distance of 705 meters was the one to beat for most of the class. The only challengers were Yaoyorozu, who created a literal cannon to fire her ball out of, and Uraraka, whose Quirk netted a score of infinity, to the shock of most of the class, and to the obvious irritation of Katsuki. Izuku just felt sick.

As he stepped up to the plate, he resolved that this would be the test where he used his Quirk. He couldn't afford not to.

_I can do this_ he thought to himself, trying to push down the fear that was burning in his stomach. _I can show him that I deserve to be here_. Even though his words were strong, his knees shook with fear.

He drew his arm back, pulling at the glowing well of energy inside of him that he was quickly beginning to associate with his new Quirk. It rose at his command, flowing into his arm and filling it with power. It made his skin tingle and throb as it tried to contain the energy it was ill prepared to handle.

He threw his arm forward, hurling the ball and squeezing his eyes shut. He was bracing for the pain he was sure would come. But nothing happened. He couldn't feel… anything. A horrific feeling filled Izuku's gut as he realized that he couldn't feel One for All.

He was Quirkless again.

* * *

Katsuki watched as Izuku reared back, ready to throw the ball as hard as he could despite his shitty form. Red lines of power ran along his veins as Izuku channeled his Quirk, and green energy shimmered along his arm.

As he went to throw, Katsuki braced himself for the aftermath. He'd only seen Izuku use his Quirk once before, but the results had been...dramatic.

When nothing happened, Katsuki was dumbfounded. For a moment, he thought that Izuku had chickened out, throwing the ball with only his human strength rather than his Quirk's power. He just couldn't imagine Izuku doing that though. Weakling or not, Izuku had never had the sense to back off a course of action once he had set his mind to it.

Katsuki's hunch was confirmed a moment later when Izuku turned to face the class, a look of confusion written on his face. The look quickly changed to one of shock, then fear as he gazed at something behind Katsuki.

He turned to see what Izuku was staring at and nearly jumped out of his skin.

Their teacher's demeanor had completely changed. The exhausted and stressed out educator who had been berating them all day was gone. In his place stood a hero. Katsuki didn't know his name, or his Quirk, but he could tell that Aizawa was a pro among pros. He towered over most of the class, eyes blazing red and hair pulled back from his face as it defied gravity. It wasn't just his appearance either. There was something about him, something that told Katsuki that this man had been through more battles in a week than he had ever been in.

"That was a stupid decision." He said, his voice sharp and commanding. "If I hadn't erased your Quirk, you would have destroyed your arm."

"Y-you're Eraserhead!" Izuku cried, his love of heroes temporarily overcoming his fear. "You can erase people's Quirks just by looking at them!"

He didn't get the chance to geek out any more before Aizawa stalked forward and grabbed his arm. He held Izuku close, whatever words passing between them inaudible to the rest of the students.

Katsuki bristled, palms beginning to spark once more as he lowered his stance. Starting shit with a teacher in the first day probably wasn't the wisest decision, but Katsuki wasn't about to let someone attack Izuku on his watch.

A hand on his arm stopped him. Katsuki whirled, wondering who had the balls to enter his personal space. The guy with shittily dyed hair stared back, shaking his head slightly.

"I don't like this any more than you do, but if you jump in, it's just gonna make things worse." He said calmly. His grip wasn't hard, but it was strong enough to get the point across.

Behind the boy, Katsuki could see Round Face and the Pink girl with eyes like a racoon in a similar position, though Raccoon Eyes was making sure not to let Round Face touch her.

Katsuki took a moment to mentally upgrade Round Face once again. She looked as ready to throw hands as he felt, even if she was about as intimidating as a particularly irate bunny. He appreciated her inventions, at the very least.

He turned back to Izuku and Aizawa. In the time that he had been distracted, they had had some sort of debate. Aizawa came away looking much more like his usual, tired self, though he was thoroughly irritated. And Izuku…

Katsuki blinked in surprise. Izuku didn't look defeated or downtrodden like he'd expected. He didn't even look afraid anymore. Instead, his eyes burned with determination. Katsuki knew that look. It was the same one he had worn before the entrance exam. It was a look that said he was going to do whatever he had set his mind to, or die trying.

He pulled his arm from Shitty Hair's grip, but made no further moves. At this point, it was all on Izuku anyway. Whether he failed or succeeded, it was going to be a hell of a show.

"Take your throw already." Aizawa said. "I still have paperwork to deal with, and I'd rather not stay later than I have to."

The rest of the class watched in fascination. Aizawa hadn't deigned to interfere with anyone else's test, which had them wondering what made this one special. Those who had been in the same arena as Izuku for the entrance exam had an inkling of what was to come, but even they were intrigued to see what would happen.

Izuku reared back once more. At the very last minute, his finger glowed, pulsing with green energy as the ball accelerated. It shot into the sky with a burst of wind that ruffled the hair of everyone watching and kicked up a ferocious cloud of dust.

As the dust settled, Izuku stood tall at the center of the cloud. There were tears in the corners of his eyes, and he was clutching at his hand in obvious pain, but he didn't cry out. Instead, he turned to face Aizawa once more.

"How's that for useless?" Izuku asked, adding a polite "Sir" a moment later. Katsuki had no idea what had been said to Izuku to provoke the sassy response, but he approved. Izuku let people walk all over him far too often. It was good to see him punch back a little.

Aizawa stared at Izuku, expression unreadable. Just when Izuku was starting to become visible uncomfortable, the man shifted his gaze to the rest of the class. He looked over each one of them, not saying anything, but still somehow letting each of them know that they were being evaluated.

Finally, Aizawa reached the end of the class. He paused for another moment, then sighed heavily. The class tensed in response, ready for him to start berating them again.

Instead, he merely turned and walked away. "Class dismissed. Be sure to be on time tomorrow." He called over his shoulder, leaving the class wondering what had just happened.

It didn't take them long to recover though, and the moment they did, they swarmed Izuku, wanting to know what had happened, or what his Quirk was, or to compliment him on talking back to Aizawa. Izuku looked overwhelmed by the attention, but he managed to turn things around, pulling his Quirk notebook out gingerly and grilling their classmates about their own Quirks. Once he had gotten on that vein, Izuku was back in his element. He looked intensely happy as he took notes on every detail of his classmate's abilities, his mind no doubt whirling with ways they could be used in hero work.

Katsuki watched from the sidelines with mixed feelings. Part of him was intensely jealous of Izuku. He'd done moderately well on the exercises while Katsuki had come in near or at the top every time. By all rights, he should be the one getting the praise and adoration, not Izuku.

There was, however, another, smaller part of him that was happy for his friend. He'd never admit it, but Katsuki felt slightly guilty for Izuku's treatment by their school. If they hadn't been friends, then the bullies might have ignored Izuku in favor of butting heads with Katsuki. It would have been a lonely life, but he would have gone through a whole lot less abuse.

Katsuki clicked his tongue in frustration and began to make his way back to the changing rooms with a few of the other students who weren't crowding his friend. He hated dealing with emotional shit. He much preferred when he could punch or intimidate his problems into submission

He knew he'd have to talk to Izuku about their performance eventually, but for now he decided to take things slow. Let the nerd have a little while in the spotlight. Soon enough, the class would be bowing to Katsuki, and he and Izuku could laugh about how screwy things had gotten when Izuku's Quirk came in.

With that decision made, Katsuki threw on his street clothes and headed home, more than ready to put his first day of UA behind him.

* * *

"Shooooota!" Present Mic called from across the teacher's lounge. "Where are 1A's profiles? I need them back!"

"I already filled all of the relevant forms with Nedzu." Aizawa said, massaging his temples. He was pretty much immune to Mic's natural volume at this point, but felt it was important to remind his friend that not everyone was as tolerant to loud noises as he was.

"That's unusual." Midnight commented. She had finished her paperwork more than an hour ago, and was mostly just hanging around the teacher's lounge to lovingly harass her fellow teachers. "You usually wait for the last minute."

Aizawa scowled in response, then returned to his sleeping bag to finish his nap.

"Touchy." Midnight said playfully. "What's got his panties in a wad?"

Mic grinned. "One of the kids was being mouthy, so he upped the difficulty of the assessment. Gave them the third year version, instead of the second year like he was supposed to. The kids didn't pass, but a couple of them gave it a serious run. And not a single drop out." He rifled through Aizawa's desk as he spoke, searching for the student profiles that Aizawa had been given the week before.

"That's impressive" Midnight said appreciatively. "They're not the only tough ones though. No dropouts in 1B either, though I did make one of them cry."

"Pretty sure that says more about you than them." Mic replied absently. With a victorious cry, he held the stack of files he'd found buried at the bottom of the desk aloft.

"I have to say, I'm looking forward to teaching them." The blonde hero said. "There's a whole lot of—" He froze as a form on the top of the stack caught his eye.

"Shota what is this?" He asked, his voice at a normal volume and tone calm. Instantly, every other teacher began to pay attention to his words. A serious Present Mic was a rare occurrence.

"Exactly what it looks like" Aizawa said, not even bothering to roll over to address his fellow teachers. "Now let me sleep."

"I don't believe it." Mic said, dropping into the nearest chair. "You, Mr. 'I don't teach First Years', Mr. 'I only deal with logical people', Mr. 'If you waste my time I'll cover your clothes in cat hair', applied to be their homeroom teacher?"

The room was dead silent. If the other teachers had been surprised before, now they were dumbfounded. Aizawa hadn't taught a first year class since his own first year. In fact, if they tried to put him in charge of one he immediately ducked out of the duty. The closest he ever came was taking charge of the first day Quirk assessment and dedication test. This sort of commitment was unprecedented.

Aizawa sighed and sat up. "I'll concede that the kids have some talent. They're still massive pains in the ass, and if they don't live up to their potential, I will drop every one of them. But for now, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they might not be complete wastes of my time."

Mic threw himself across the room, wrapping Aizawa in a tight hug. "I'm so proud of you! We're gonna make a teacher out of you yet, buddy!"

"Hizashi, if you don't let go of me right now I'm going to leave a dent in your solar plexus."

* * *

Izuku was exhausted. Between the assessment and the healing for his finger, his energy reserves had been almost totally wiped out. It wasn't quite as bad as the entrance exam, but Izuku chalked that up to needing less healing this time. He flexed the finger in question experimentally. It was still a bit sluggish, but he couldn't believe it had been broken just a few hours ago. Recovery Girl's Quirk was truly amazing.

Despite how exhausting the day had been, Izuku felt good about it. Small though it might be, he'd made progress in learning to control One for All. He'd still be out of the fight after ten attacks, but that was eight more than he'd been able to use yesterday.

He'd also come out ahead in the friends department, a fact that made him want to jump for joy. Not only was Katsuki in his class, for which Izuku was infinitely grateful, but Uraraka as well. He hadn't gotten much of a chance to talk to her before, but hopefully the rest of their week would be a little more sedate and they would have a chance to talk. He still hadn't gotten the chance to thank her for saving him during the entrance exam. Or for trying to share her points with him. Or for agreeing to be his friend.

Come to think of it, he really had a lot to thank her for.

It wasn't just those two either. He'd been dreading the idea of running into Iida again, but their meeting had gone well. This time, Iida had seemed a bit more relaxed, and even a bit friendly. Izuku was glad for that. He really didn't want to start UA with someone already disliking him. That would remind him too much of Aldera.

It didn't seem like he had to worry about that though. Almost everyone in the class had seemed welcoming, or at least formally accommodating.

And they all had such amazing Quirks! It felt like he'd only just started his newest notebook, and it was already nearly full of notes. He'd only been able to talk mechanics for a short while after the assessment, but his mind was already brimming with ideas of how their Quirks could be used, and what their strengths and weaknesses would be.

He grinned to himself. He couldn't wait for the next day to come. He couldn't wait to meet more people, to see their Quirks in action, and to learn even more about being a hero.

* * *

"So, how was your first day Tenya? Meet any pretty girls?"

Tenya glared at his brother. "I'll have you know I didn't waste my time philandering like some in my class. I was focused on being the best hero-in-training that I can be."

Tensei shrugged. "Alright then. How about pretty boys?"

Tenya choked and flushed a bright red, but didn't say anything. Seeing his brother's face, Tensei bust out laughing. "I'll take that as a yes. Good for you! I was starting to worry you were never going to show interest in anyone. I was starting to worry about the future of the Iida family name."

Tenya spluttered in embarrassment and irritation. When he realized he wouldn't be able to form a coherent thought anytime soon, he settled for chopping his brother over the head repeatedly. This only made Tensei laugh harder, until he was rolling on the floor.

Before long, Tenya's indignation faded and he found himself laughing as well. The pair lay on the floor of their family's living room, cackling like madmen until they were both out of breath.

"Thank you, Tensei." Tenya said, when he finally got his breath back. "I think I needed that."

"Of course." Tensei said, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "The first day is always rough. I'd like to say it gets easier, but it doesn't really. You just learn to get used to it." He grinned. "Then again, that might just be me. I was never that good in school."

"Nonsense!" Tenya said. "You were an excellent student. I'm just doing my best to live up to your example."

"I'm flattered," Tensei said. "But you shouldn't try to imitate me too closely. You're your own person after all. You gotta live life your own way."

Tenya looked thoughtful, as if trying to suss out some hidden meaning behind the statement. Tensei brushed it off though.

"It's not that deep. I've never been one for philosophy after all. Just… try your best, and know I'll be proud of you." He wrapped Tenya in a hug, slapping his back affectionately. "Now, let's go see if Mom's done with dinner. She's making beef stew to celebrate your first day."

The smile on Tenya's face made his cheeks hurt as he followed his brother into the kitchen.

* * *

Mina sighed as she picked at her dinner. She was happy that her mom supported her dream of becoming a hero. She just wished that support didn't translate into heaping piles of broccoli on her plate every night.

She did manage to eat it all in the end. The first day had left her famished. She was used to working hard to stay in shape, but those tests had been on a totally different level. She could already tell that she would be sore tomorrow.

She'd have to push through it though. After all, she had classmates to meet. During the assessment there had been almost no down time for socializing. She had been either gasping for breath or busy preparing for the next test. It was a real shame too, since a lot of her new classmates looked like interesting people.

There was the boy with split colored hair who looked like he'd walked straight out of a shojo manga with his icy attitude and brooding demeanor. She wondered what dark thoughts lurked beneath that placid expression and distant eyes.

Then there was the foreign girl. She hadn't spoken much, and Mina got the impression that her Japanese wasn't the greatest, since she had looked more than a little lost as she followed the class from test to test. Mina didn't care though. They could be horn buddies, and talk all about American fashion, typing messages into a translator if need be.

She also wouldn't mind getting to know the girl with the gravity Quirk a bit better. They hadn't had time to talk to each other, but Mina had seen her actually take a step towards Aizawa when he had been picking on the boy with green hair. It had been a stupid choice, one Mina had needed to prevent her from making, but she appreciated the intention anyways. She'd always hated bullies, and seeing Aizawa go after that kid had really pissed her off.

She hoped the boy was okay. He'd seemed to pep up after the assessment was over, chatting with everyone about their Quirks. Even still, she resolved to talk to him about the whole thing tomorrow. She'd hate to see one of her new classmates get downtrodden by one stupid teacher.

As she went over the events of the day, Mina found the list of people she wanted to talk to growing longer and longer, until it pretty much encompassed the whole class. It was a real shame. She definitely wouldn't be able to give them all the time she would need to get to really know them, at least not before the weekend rolled around, which would keep them all apart for several days. It sucked that they couldn't just hang out during their off time.

Mina paused as a thought occurred to her. Sure, the school wasn't going to have them hang out during the weekend, but that didn't mean they couldn't get together on their own time. After all, everyone loved a party, and there was no better way to get to know people.

Smiling, she pulled out her phone and started looking at places near the school that they could co-opt for a meet and greet.

She was gonna show these people some fun, Mina style!

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

As usual, thank you so much for reading. Your enjoyment means the world to me, and I wouldn't be able to do what I do without each and every one of you.

Here's another change to cannon that I've wanted to do for a while: day one Aizawa. I wanted to re-balance his motivations, making him a little less of an arbitrary hard ass, and more of a beleaguered educator who doesn't want to have to put up with first year nonsense. Little does he know, of course, that these particular first years have a way of working their way into your heart.

If you want to chat with me, but don't feel like leaving a review, I can be found on Tumblr under the same username as here

Thank you once again for reading, and I hope you have an excellent day!


	5. A Normal Day in Paradise

**Author's note:**

Wow, it's been a while since the last chapter. Apologies to everyone for that. A bunch of life events piled up at once and kept me from making much progress on this story. Hopefully the next chapter will come a little more quickly.

* * *

The harsh buzzing of his alarm jolted Izuku awake. He groaned in disappointment as the last vestiges of sleep were torn away from him. He'd been having an excellent dream involving a picnic in the park with Katsuki and Uraraka. He spent a few moments futilely chasing the memories of the warm sun and pleasant company, but found them irritatingly elusive.

"Izuku, dear, time to wake up!" his mother called from the kitchen. Despite her soft-spoken demeanor, she somehow managed to make herself heard from across the apartment with little effort. "If you don't get up soon, you won't have time to eat before school!"

He sighed. He knew she meant well, but it was hard for him to be enthusiastic on a school day, when all he had to look forward to was—

He froze as his sleep-addled brain caught up to reality. He wasn't being forced to return to his least favorite place on the planet again. He didn't have to prepare himself for another day of torment.

He was going to learn how to be a hero from actual pro heroes. He was going to eat lunch with Katsuki and Uraraka without having to look out for spitballs or people trying to trip him. He was going to _UA_!

A wide smile crossed his face at the realization. He leapt out of bed and sped through his morning routine in half the time it normally took.

When he made it the kitchen, he froze in surprise. Katsuki was seated at the dining table, casual as could be despite the fact that it had been more than a year since he'd eaten breakfast at Izuku's house.

"What are you looking at, nerd?"

Izuku stood frozen for a moment, gaping like a fish. Finally, he managed to put his thoughts in order and respond.

"I… nothing. I'm just… surprised to see you."

Katsuki clicked his tongue. "I just dropped in because my mom made me leave super early, and this place was on the way to school. Don't get used to it."

Katsuki's house was actually closer to UA than Izuku's was, but he decided not to comment on that fact. He'd learned long ago that trying to make Katsuki admit he was being nice only made him deny it more fervently.

Instead, he sat down across from his friend and tucked in. As luck would have it, his mother had made extra that morning, so there was more than enough food to go around, even with Izuku and Katsuki's generous appetites.

"I'm so glad the two of you are friends again!" Inko said, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

"Mom!" Izuku hissed in embarrassment.

"Oh, I know you're teenagers now and it's embarrassing to be friendly in front of us old people, but it does my heart good to see you two so close. When you drifted apart I was worried that it would be permanent."

Katsuki snorted. "Nah. It'd take more than that to get this nerd to leave me alone."

"K-Kacchan!" Izuku whined, taken aback at suddenly being ganged up on.

"You know I'm right. Who else is gonna sit through your hour-long hero lectures?"

"Uraraka might," Izuku said, somewhat petulantly.

Inko and Katsuki immediately perked up at that.

"Who the hell is Uraraka?" Katsuki asked, seeming genuinely unaware of who Izuku was referring to.

Izuku could only sigh. He should have realized that Katsuki wouldn't remember their classmate's names, at least not until they really met his approval. This wasn't the first time this had happened though, so Izuku had gotten used to having to reintroduce people. He had just assumed Katsuki would put in a little more effort now that they were attending UA.

"She's one of our new classmates who I met at the entrance exam. She's a little shorter than me, with brown hair and pink cheeks, and pink pads on her fingertips because of her Quirk. Very enthusiastic." He didn't see any spark of realization in his friend's eyes, so he tried one last time. "She was the one who beat your score on the ball toss yesterday."

"Ohhhh. You mean Round Face."

The nickname wasn't _bad_ really. Especially when compared to some of the other ones Katsuki had come up with in the past for people who irritated him. Still, Izuku hoped that Uraraka never heard it. Or that he was able to explain a little bit about Katsuki's behavior before she did.

"Um… Yes. We're… we're kinda friends. Since the entrance exam."

Katsuki blinked in surprise, while Inko began to weep openly with happiness.

"I'm so happy for you!" she said, dabbing futilely at her eyes with her napkin. "You're going to the school you've always wanted to, and now you're making friends! And with girls too!"

Izuku flushed at the implication, waving his hands in front of him. "It… it's not like that! I mean, she's pretty and nice, but we're just friends!"

"My little boy is growing up!" she proudly proclaimed, drawing Izuku into a tight hug.

Before he could protest any further Katsuki cut in.

"Izuku, you sure she's _actually_ nice?"

He nodded. When they were younger, a few of their classmates had made a bet on whether they could get Izuku to think they were friends, only to leave him sobbing in front of the class when they couldn't be bothered to keep up the charade any more. The teacher had needed to physically restrain Katsuki to keep him from attacking the ringleaders.

It had taken Izuku a long time to recover from that incident. To him, the bond of trust between friends was sacred, and not something to be used to hurt other people, no matter the circumstances.

"I'm sure." he replied, "She seemed like she wanted to be friends just as much as I did. And she helped me out at the entrance exam."

Katsuki's eyes widened in realization. "Wait, _Round Face_ is the one who saved your dumb ass from falling to your death?"

"SHE SAVED HIM FROM WHAT?" Inko shrieked.

Izuku and Katsuki both froze. After the entrance exam, they had come to a mutual agreement that neither would mention exactly what had taken place to his mother. Part of this was to spare her from stress, and part was to preserve their own hides.

Inko may have abandoned her delinquent persona after graduating high school, unlike Mitsuki, but it had a tendency to emerge when her son was in danger. Both Izuku and Katsuki remembered the time she had taken down a rabid dog in a single hit when it had tried to bite Izuku. Time, age, and a rich diet may have dulled her physique, but Inko Midoriya's spirit was as sharp as ever. Neither of the boys wanted her thinking they had been reckless or negligent when it came to Izuku's safety.

Katsuki bolted from his seat, followed shortly by Izuku. In no time, the pair had grabbed their bags and were at the apartment door. Neither had finished eating, but in that moment hunger seemed much preferable to the alternative.

"Need to grab the train!" Katsuki called back into the apartment. "Nice to see you, Auntie Inko!"

"Bye Mom!"

"We're talking about this when you get home!" Inko called after them "Have a good—and safe!— day at school!"

"I'll do my best!"

Inko sighed as the door slammed shut behind the boys.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

* * *

Hissing with irritation, Katsuki spun on his heels, eyes scanning the surrounding buildings wildly. When he couldn't find anything, he cursed vehemently. It was the third time he had done this since they had left Izuku's house just a few minutes ago.

"What's going on, Kacchan?" Izuku asked.

"Feels like someone's watching me. It's fucking creepy." Katsuki said, adjusting his bag on his shoulder before he continued walking. His slouch was even more pronounced than it had been a moment before. It was only when they were away from people that Katsuki seemed to really relax and let his carefully affected image slip away. When he was this worked up, he looked like a delinquent straight out of the movies.

Izuku hummed as he considered the situation. "Hmmmmm. Maybe you have a secret admirer?"

Katsuki scoffed. "Hope not. I've got enough shit to deal with without some idiot throwing themselves at me. 'Sides, no one around here would be caught dead trying to flirt with me."

Izuku had to agree. Even putting Katsuki's undeserved reputation aside, his general demeanor didn't exactly invite people to spend time with him. Izuku was probably the only person his own age that Katsuki had spent more than an hour talking to without it devolving into a fight since elementary school.

"Maybe it's our uniforms?" Izuku mused. "There aren't a lot of UA students who live out this way, so that might be why."

Katsuki shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe. But it feels slimier than that."

Izuku grinned. "Maybe another of your mom's friends is thinking about how 'handsome' and 'muscular' you are."

Katsuki shuddered for a moment, likely reliving his traumatic memory. Then his palms began to spark as he glared at Izuku.

"I thought I told you never to bring that up again," he hissed.

"Just thought I should bring up the possibility," Izuku said glibly.

Katsuki opened his mouth to respond, then decided against it. Instead, he shot one last look behind him, then picked up his pace. "Whatever. Let's just get going. Don't want Aizawa getting on our case about attendance or some shit.

Izuku had to agree, though he was surprised to hear Katsuki using Aizawa's name. He'd never shown respect for any teacher before this point, so it was nice to see the change. It looked like UA was going to be good for both of them.

* * *

Aizawa slid into the classroom a second before the first bell rang. Most of the class were still out their seats, though once they noticed their teacher had arrived they practically leapt for their desks. No one wanted to get any further on their teacher's bad side than they already were.

It was hard to tell, but Izuku thought he could see a faint smirk cross on the man's face at the reaction.

"Would you look at that." he said, tone as deadpan as ever. "You _can_ be taught."

He dropped a small packet of papers onto the sparkly blond boy's desk. "That's the attendance sheet. Make sure everyone signs it. Announcements are on the podium. You can have someone read it out or you can pass it around too, I don't really care." With that, he pulled out his apparently ever-present sleeping bag and zipped himself into it.

The class stared in disbelief. Yesterday had been one thing, with Aizawa being dismissive of their abilities and efforts, but this was different. At least then he'd been acting like a teacher.

"Sir, are you not going to lead homeroom?" Iida asked, sounding scandalized.

"No I am not," Aizawa replied. "You're heroes in training now. You don't need me to announce everything to you. Or at least, you shouldn't." he gave the class a significant look that had several of them shrinking in their seats.

Aizawa sighed. "Look, I'd do away with homeroom in favor of something more useful if I could, but the principal says I have to let you 'settle in' before I change up the curriculum too much. So just… deal with it for now. We'll get to something better soon."

Izuku found himself surprisingly mollified by the explanation. He didn't quite agree with Aizawa's hands-off approach to class, but he did understand the reasoning behind it. Homeroom was a bit of dead air when compared to the rest of the school day, especially if there weren't many announcements to make.

Apparently, the rest of the class felt similarly. There was some general muttering, but they organized quickly to pass the role sheet around. Iida volunteered to read the announcements in the meantime, all of which were either irrelevant to them or general information that was pretty self evident, in Izuku's opinion.

With the announcements done, Iida took advantage of his position at the front of the class to launch into a mini lecture about respecting the school and its equipment. He didn't name any names, but everyone knew who the lecture was directed at. Thankfully, Katsuki didn't do much more than glower at Iida, though Izuku had no doubt he was burning the bespectacled boy in effigy in his mind. The rest of the class merely rolled their eyes and zoned out, hoping Iida would wear himself out.

Finally, Iida finished his talk, giving a small bow despite the lack of applause, and took his seat once more. As he did, the pink girl with the Acid Quirk, whose name Izuku was fairly certain was Ashido, hopped to her feet. She looked like she wanted to say something to the class, but she never got the chance.

"Good morning listeners!" Present Mic said, literally sliding into the room. "How are you all doing today?"

Ashido looked extremely put out at having lost her chance to talk to everyone, but she took her seat as dutifully as everyone else. After getting to know Aizawa, they were all wary of the rest of the staff, waiting to see if his attitude was an anomaly or a feature.

Their worries proved to be unfounded, however. Present Mic led his class with the same enthusiasm that he hosted his radio show with. He seemed overjoyed when people asked questions or participated in discussions with him, a fact the less academically minded of the class immediately took notice of. They managed to lead him onto two different tangents before class was over, and Izuku could tell that it would become a trend.

Still, he found that he actually enjoyed the class. Present Mic was much more enthusiastic than Izuku's old teacher at Aldera, and he was much more comfortable with deviating from the lecture to discuss important points. Izuku could tell that his knowledge came from experience, rather than just from a textbook. His tangents were interesting, too, even if they weren't always related directly to the material.

He came away from the class hopeful. Present Mic's area of expertise seemed to be in conversational English, which was the area Izuku was weakest in by far. Many of the early works on Quirk theory that Izuku had studied were written in English, so he had a basic grasp of the written language, but he'd barely had a chance to speak it with anyone.

He did have an excellent stock of English curses thanks to Katsuki though.

Their next class was modern literature, and going between the two gave Izuku a sense of whiplash. Cementoss was almost the exact opposite of Present Mic, calm, quiet and collected at all times. He had a set of lecture notes that he stuck to religiously, only taking questions at specific intervals, and finished just a few moments before the bell rang.

He was an excellent teacher though. He kept a measured pace that was easy to follow, taking his time to explain each concept thoroughly so that everyone understood. It was obvious that he had been teaching for a long time, and his style had evolved from his experience. He wasn't as stiff as his appearance would imply either. He showed a particular penchant for slipping puns into his lectures that left several members of the class laughing, and the rest groaning.

It was nice, though, to have time to relax after the whirlwind that was Present Mic. Izuku enjoyed being able to sit back and take notes at his own pace, rather than trying to keep up with the energetic hero. Unfortunately for some, Cementoss's voice proved a little too relaxing. Izuku could see a few heads lolling up and down and what sounded faintly like snoring coming from the far side of the classroom.

No one could sleep through their next class however. Midnight's appearance kept several of the male students' attention firmly fixed upon her, and Izuku could hear heavy breathing coming from behind him whenever the heroine dropped her chalk, which was a frequent occurrence. Those who weren't captivated by her looks found her hard to ignore for other reasons. She made liberal use of the riding crop she carried in her left hand whenever she felt their minds or eyes starting to wander away from her, something she seemed to have an instinctive knack for.

That all said, Izuku quickly realized she wasn't the walking bimbo the media often portrayed her as. She was wickedly smart, picking apart any poorly-phrased answers she received in seconds. She seemed to be the kind of teacher who put her best effort into every class and demanded that her students put forth the same.

He just wished she'd tone down the innuendos.

* * *

Katsuki let out a sigh of relief when the slutty teacher finally let them out for lunch. The entire day had been nothing but review for him, and he was intensely bored. It looked like he was going to keep being bored as well. Their foundational heroics class was being replaced with a meet and greet session for their class, supposedly to make up for not getting to know each other the day before.

It sounded like a massive waste of time to Katsuki, but he couldn't think of a way to get out of it without pissing off the faculty, something he wanted to avoid as best he could. He already knew that between his Quirk and his appearance, none of the teachers would be friendly towards him. Any overt acts of disrespect or rebellion were liable to turn them fully against him. No, his best bet was to toe the line until his grades and skills earned him some respect. It would bite the hairy bag, but Katsuki was prepared to stow his pride while he established himself.

That willingness didn't extend to his fellow students, however.

"What's up bro?" A red-haired boy asked when Katsuki exited the lunch line.

He spared a moment to look the boy up and down. He was muscular and seemed proud of it, keeping his uniform sleeves rolled up to his biceps. His hair was so obviously dyed that Katsuki almost sniggered. It was obvious that he'd done it himself too. The color was uneven, and he'd missed a few of his roots.

It reminded Katsuki a lot of the time his mother had tried to get him to dye his own hair black to stand out less. He'd struggled the whole time and the dye job had ended up choppy and incomplete. Not that it would have changed anyone's opinion of him even if it had gone perfectly. That had been set in stone since he was a child.

"What do you want?" he asked, treating the boy to one of his signature glares.

"Me and my friends have an empty seat at our table, and we were wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with us." He indicated a nearby table where a blond boy with a black streak in his hair and a bright pink girl were waving at them.

Katsuki had seen their kind before. They were gathering their little clique and pretty soon they'd be laughing with each other about everyone else who wasn't 'cool' enough to join them.

"Not interested," he said, turning away to look for where Izuku had ended up.

Thankfully, he spotted the mop of distinctive green hair almost immediately. Izuku had claimed a medium sized table on the far side of the cafeteria and was glancing around at the surrounding students nervously.

"We'll catch you later then!" The shitty-haired boy called from behind Katsuki.

"Piss off, Shitty Hair!" Katsuki called back, not bothering to turn around. He didn't see the wounded look that crossed Kirishima's face at the words.

Katsuki made his way across the lunch room, pushing his way past people who didn't get out of his way fast enough. As he walked, he decided that he and Izuku were going to lay claim to a table that was closer to the entrance so that he didn't have to trek halfway to China to eat his lunch.

When he finally reached the table he was further dismayed to see that Izuku wasn't alone. Izuku hadn't been kidding about being friends with Round Face, apparently. The two were chatting animatedly about one of the ridiculous tangents that the Cockatoo teacher had gone on earlier. On the opposite side of the table, directly across from Izuku, was Four Eyes. He was nodding along with the conversation, looking a lot less robotic than he had previously.

He dropped into the open seat next to Four Eyes with a thump that caused both of the extras to jump. Izuku just smiled at his arrival.

"Hey Kacchan. Enjoying classes so far?"

Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Fuck no. I'm bored out of my skull. And not looking forward to whatever BS activities they're gonna make us do later."

Izuku nodded sympathetically, but the other two glared at him.

Four eyes spoke up first. "Perhaps if you payed attention instead of staring out the window for the entire class you might find the lectures more engaging."

Katsuki scoffed. "I'll start paying attention when they start teaching stuff, instead of just pointlessly reviewing shit we already know."

"Wait, your school covered this stuff?" Round Face said, only to be drowned out by Four Eyes.

"Review is an important step in the memorization process! Besides, paying attention to our teachers is a matter of respect! Furthermore—"

"I think what Kacchan is trying to say," Izuku cut in before Four Eyes could get rolling on his lecture, "is that since he's studied ahead of the curriculum, the classes now feel slower than he was hoping for, and it's made him feel a little disappointed."

It definitely wasn't how Katsuki would have put it, but the explanation seemed to mollify Four Eyes, so he let it go.

"You studied ahead?" Round Face asked, surprise clearly written on her face.

"Yeah. Got something to say about that?" Katsuki asked. Lunch was already a quarter of the way through and he hadn't gotten the chance to touch his food yet. He hated when people tried to engage him when he was doing shit. That was the nice thing about Izuku. Once he got going, he needed very little input, leaving Katsuki free to do whatever he wanted.

"No, I'm just… surprised." she said.

Izuku nodded understandingly. "I know he doesn't look like it, but Kacchan is a really good student. And a good friend."

Katsuki would never admit how much Izuku's statement meant to him. Even after all these years, he never changed his opinion, never turned his back on Katsuki. It was nice to have someone who believed in him.

"It appears I have let my impressions cloud my thinking yet again." Four Eyes seemed to deflate as he spoke. For a brief moment, Katsuki felt like he could see past the stiff demeanor and awkward attitude and catch a glimpse of someone underneath, someone who reminded him strangely of Izuku. A second later and the moment was over. Four Eyes offered his hand to Katsuki. "My apologies, Bakugou, for judging you unfairly. I hope that you can forgive my blunder."

"Whatever." Katsuki said, digging into his food. If they were going to keep talking to him for the whole period, he might as well get some nutrition out of the deal. "You're forgiven and shit. Maybe lay off the lectures though."

He looked a bit taken aback at the response, but recovered quickly. "I… thank you. I will… endeavor to comply with your request. Though, might I ask you to tone down your language in exchange?"

"Mind not using your glasses in class?"

Four Eyes frowned at the question. "I require my glasses to function properly in class."

Katsuki shrugged. "And I need to swear to function. Same difference."

"It is hardly the same thing! And furthermore, I object to your implication that I…"

Katsuki sighed internally while the other two snickered. It had probably been too much to hope that Four Eyes would actually tone it down that much. He settled in for a long lunch, and an even longer afternoon.

* * *

The last ten minutes of math class seemed to drag on forever for Mina. Not that she ever really found math class exciting, but today was especially bad. She'd been going over her plan for the class party since last night, and couldn't wait to pitch it to everyone. She'd already brought it up to the few friends she'd made so far, and they had all thought it sounded great.

By the time Ectoplasm packed up his papers and promised to "get into the fun stuff" starting the next day, Mina was practically bouncing in her seat. Not even the threat of looming algebra could get her down.

What did curb her enthusiasm a small amount was Aizawa walking back through the classroom door instead of a new teacher. Mina had a lot riding on who their last teacher was, and she was a little disappointed not to find out. She and Kirishima were playing pro-hero bingo with their teachers. If it was Number Thirteen, like she thought, Mina stood to win an extra large soda from the convenience store near her old school. Kirishima was holding out for Vlad King, the poor fool.

There hadn't been many conversations running before Aizawa had shown up, but all of them ceased instantly when he came into view. Mina, for her part, felt her back go ram-rod stiff as he cast his gaze over the class. Memories of yesterday's "assessment" rose unbidden to her mind and made her shiver.

"You know, if you all had just gone home then I could have skipped too," Aizawa said, sighing heavily.

Mina was surprised by how much she liked Aizawa. After the first day, she had thought he was a total hard-ass and a bully. After today, though, she found that she had a grudging appreciation for the hero. He spoke his mind, and he definitely wasn't one to mince his words. It probably rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, but Mina could see how having someone like him around could be good for the faculty and students alike.

She still wasn't entirely comfortable with him though, especially after his stunt on the first day. Even if it had been an act, he had totally crossed the line, and Mina wasn't ready to forgive and forget just yet.

Plus, his glares freaked her out. She couldn't imagine what it would feel like to lose access to her Quirk, even if it was just temporarily.

"Alright," Aizawa grabbed a chair and spun it around so that he could lean over the back of it to face the class. "Here's the deal. The Principal gave me a list of icebreakers I'm supposed to have you complete. Once we're done with those, however, the rest of the 'activities' are up to me. So, we're going to go through this as quickly as we can, and then I'll let you go. If anyone wants to stay after that and mingle, you're welcome to. Sound fair?"

Enough people nodded that he apparently felt satisfied with the answer.

"Okay. First up is a basic introduction," he said, reading directly off a sheet of paper and somehow managing to sound even more deadpan and monotone than normal. "Stand up, say your name, Quirk, an interesting fact about yourself, and what kind of hero you want to be." He shook his head dismissively as he finished, and Mina was pretty sure she heard him mutter something disparaging about school traditions.

As stiff and formal as it was, Mina was thankful for the introduction. One of her main goals for this week had been getting to know as many of her classmates as she could, and this helped a bunch. She had already known a few of her classmates' names, but this let her get the rest of them down pat, especially since their 'interesting fact' helped them stick in her mind.

A lot of it played out like she expected. Most people were stiff or awkward, keeping their introductions as short as possible. There were a few standouts though.

They had not one, but two foreign people in their class. The rather fabulous boy who sat in front of her, Yuga Aoyama, was apparently French and extremely proud of it. Despite going first, his introduction ended up being one of the longest in the class. It was filled with references to his beauty and talent, which Mina had some trouble believing considering how low he had ranked in the tests the day before.

The other foreign student, Pony Tsunotori, didn't have quite the same grasp on Japanese as Aoyama, but she made up for her broken speech with her charm. She seemed a little bit on the shy side, though it was hard to tell if that was really due to her personality or just a lack of confidence with her Japanese. She was absolutely adorable though, and Mina resolved right then and there that they were going to be good friends.

Midoriya didn't look like he was letting the assessment fiasco hang over his head, which Mina supposed was a good thing. However, he did look like he wanted to be anywhere but presenting to the class. She got the impression that he wasn't exactly the most social person. He seemed nice enough though. As he spoke, she reminded herself that she still wanted to talk to him about Aizawa and make sure he knew there were other people in the class he could go to if he felt bullied.

Then again, he might be used to people with abrasive personalities, considering that he seemed to get along with Bakugou. Mina wasn't quite sure what to think of the blond boy. His appearance and attitude screamed delinquent, but something about the assessment felt off to Mina. Even so, Mina didn't get the feeling he was there to make friends. He glared at anyone who came near him, as if he expected someone to want to throw hands at any time. It was more than a little off-putting.

Last, and most certainly least, the purple cretin named Mineta had made a decidedly negative impression with his goal of being a hero to get women and his none too subtle looks at the female students in the class. Mina was thankful she had only noticed his looks after she had presented. Knowing he was looking her up and down while she spoke would have made the experience infinitely worse.

Mina was pretty disappointed by the rest of the icebreaker activities. The introduction section had been the most informative, making the rest seem pointless and often downright ridiculous. If it weren't for Aizawa glaring at them, Mina would have been sorely tempted to skip out on a few of the worst ones. As it was, she put her best smile on and mingled with everyone as she filled out a bingo card of her classmate's favorite fruits.

"What, exactly, is the point of this, sir?" Yaoyorozu asked as the group finished sorting themselves into a line based on their favorite colors.

"Nedzu likes his data." was all Aizawa said in response.

* * *

"Finally!" Mina said with relief, collapsing back into her chair.

Their last "icebreaker" had involved the class grabbing each other's hands to form a human knot, then trying to undo themselves without letting go.

It had taken much longer than it should have since no one could agree on how best to go about the task. Yaoyorozu had tried to take charge, but she had been misled by a couple of the guys—including Kaminari, to Mina's irritation—who had just been trying to set things up so they rubbed up against as many of the girls as possible. Bakugou hadn't made it easy either, shouting down anyone who disagreed with his instructions.

Thankfully, Midoriya had somehow been able to talk him into working with the group instead of just shouting at them. The blond had then proceeded to headbutt Kaminari and Mineta into submission without letting go of anyone's hands in a rather impressive display of flexibility.

With the troublemakers dealt with, they were finally free to be productive. Midoriya again proved quite adept at figuring out the knot, though he devolved into a useless stuttering mess when Yaoyorozu ended up pressed against his back. Thankfully, Mina was able to pick up the slack. She managed to slip through a few tight squeezes since she was one of the more flexible members of the class, simplifying the knot immensely. In short order, they were all untangled and more than a little relieved to be done with the exercise.

"That was misery to watch." Aizawa informed them. He hadn't budged from his chair at the front of the class during any of the exercises. It had seemed like he had fallen asleep up there, but apparently that wasn't the case. It was a bit of a shame. He really looked like he could have used a nap.

"If you think that's bad, you should have tried doing it." Kaminari replied. He apparently hadn't learned his lesson about mouthing off to Aizawa. That, or he was too burned out to care.

"I did." Aizawa said, raising his head slightly to glare at them. "Nedzu made all the teachers do the activities after school yesterday. Said it was so we could be sure we were 'administering them properly'. So, I've been where you're at, and I was there with both Midnight and Present Mic."

The entire class hissed in sympathy.

"Exactly," he said, rising from his seat. "Anyways, that's all for today. Tomorrow we'll have your first foundational heroics class, so come prepared. Don't be late." With that, he stalked out of class.

A groan rippled through the students at the prospect of more surprises coming the following day. None of them had missed the fact that Aizawa hadn't told them what to be prepared _for_.

"This totally sucks!" Mineta whined. "I thought the first week was supposed to be easy!"

"I shudder to think it," Yaoyorozu said, "But I wonder if this _is _them taking it easy on us. Our first week is only three days long, and two of those days have involved releasing us early. It is possible that things will only get harder from here on."

That was a sobering thought, one that could have easily turned the class's mood sour. Thankfully, Kirishima cut in before they could all sink too low.

"Man, sounds like it's gonna be stressful!" he said in a tone that was so overacted that Mina wanted to slap him upside the head. "If only there were a way we could relieve that stress and get to know each other at the same time!" He finished with a theatrical wink in Mina's direction.

She sighed at his antics, but pushed forward. It was an awkward segway, but she could make it work.

"Kirishima makes an excellent point." she said, standing to address the class. "This week has been super crazy, and I don't know about you guys, but I didn't really get to _know_ anyone today."

A few people nodded at her statement, which was reassuring.

"So, I was thinking that we should throw a party this weekend. Nothing fancy, just a little get together to hang out and get to know each other when we don't have a pissed-off insomniac glaring at us."

She let a moment pass while people chuckled and surveyed the room. Only a couple of people looked sold on the idea so far, but it was a start. She already knew that Kirishima and Kaminari were on board, since she'd talked to them at lunch. She also knew Hagakure would be on board, since the invisible girl had been thinking about a similar event and had just lacked the logistical skills to make it happen. If she included herself, that was almost a quarter of the class who were already in. If she could get the majority of the class on board, the rest would be that much easier to convince.

"I found a karaoke place near here that's open late and relatively cheap without being sleazy." She continued. "If we all chip in, it would only end up being a few hundred yen apiece. And, since I was the one who proposed this whole thing, I'll buy a round of drinks for everyone." It would eat into her savings, and she'd have to hope no one ordered anything too expensive, but she was willing to make that sacrifice to get people to come.

The mood in the room had changed from one of skepticism to cautious excitement. There were still a few hold outs, including Jirou, Bakugou, Midoriya, and Satou (and possible Tokoyami. Mina wasn't quite sure how to read his avian expressions) but they were in the minority. A few of them were even converted a moment later when Yaoyorozu chimed in.

"That sounds like a lovely idea, Ashido. I would love to attend, and would be happy to purchase snacks for everyone as well."

Mina was surprised. She had expected Yaoyorozu to be one of the holdouts, given the rich girl aura she gave off. Like Mina had said, the place they were going wasn't exactly sleazy, but it wasn't particularly high class either, and it definitely wasn't the kind of place a girl like Yaoyorozu usually hung out. Then again, she supposed, that was the entire point of this party. To get to know their classmates in ways they normally wouldn't.

With Yaoyorozu' s statement, the class was sold. Some were coming for the party itself, some were coming for the promise of free snacks, some from social pressure, and a few by the promise of Yaoyorozu's presence, but Mina didn't really care what their reason was. Wrangling them all had been the hard part, and now that it was over, it would be smooth sailing from here on out. She just had to throw a good party, which was something she was great at.

By the end of Friday, everyone would be having an excellent time, no matter what the next day of class brought upon them, and that was a Mina Ashido guarantee!

* * *

"Hey Midoriya, do you want to walk to the train together?" Uraraka asked.

With Aizawa gone and their tasks for the day done, most of the class had decided to head home. A few were still in the process of writing their contact details down for Ashido, who was going to start a group chat so that everyone knew where to go and what time the party was starting, but the classroom was nearly empty by this point.

"Yes!" he said, smiling at the girl. "Are you ready to go, Kacchan?"

"Not going. Got shit to do," came the curt reply.

"Oh. All right." Izuku said, his mood falling a little. A part of him had been hoping that they could all walk home together like he'd seen friends at his last school do. He'd always been a bit jealous of them. Walking home while discussing heroes with Katsuki was nice, but sometimes Izuku longed for a group instead of just a duo.

"Mind if I tag along instead?" a new voice said from behind them.

Ashido had finished collecting everyone's info and had made her way over to them. Izuku had to admire her confidence. Trying to talk to people he didn't know always made his mouth dry up and his hands shake with nerves. Ashido, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease, even with Katsuki glaring at her suspiciously.

"What do you want?" the blond asked, gaze unwavering.

Mina did look a bit taken aback at the naked hostility in his voice, but her surprise didn't last for long. "I wanted to get to know you guys a little better before the party. After all, a party's way more fun when you know the people there, instead of them all being strangers."

She hesitated a moment, then continued when Katsuki's glare didn't relent. "And I've got something I want to chat with Midoriya about outside of school."

Katsuki glanced at Izuku, who could only shrug. He had no idea why Ashido would want to talk to him. They hadn't talked a lot, and what words they had exchanged had been totally innocuous. He'd asked her a bit about her Quirk the day before when everyone had been crowding around him at the end of the physical assessment, but that was it.

"Umm, what did you want to talk about?" Izuku asked, turning back to the pink girl.

"Nothing bad," Mina said quickly, "Just some… friendly conversation, I guess?"

Katsuki still looked unconvinced, but Izuku was sold and Uraraka nodded her acceptance when he turned to check with her.

"That sounds fine," Izuku said, addressing Ashido once more.

"Great! I'll go grab my stuff. Won't be a second!" she replied, dashing to her desk.

Once she had left Katsuki stood up from his desk and grabbed his own bag.

"My shit's not gonna take long. I'll meet you at the station." He leveled a significant look at Izuku. "If shit goes down, call me and I'll blow her the hell away."

"K-Kacchan it's not like that!"

He snorted dismissively, "Sure it isn't. Just like it wasn't last time. Or the one before it"

"I feel like I'm missing something here," Uraraka chimed in.

"Just reminding Izuku that people are assholes." With that Katsuki stormed off, letting the classroom door slam shut behind him.

"What's got him in such a bad mood?" Ashido asked, making her way back up to Izuku and Uraraka.

"Bad memories," Izuku said with a sigh, "You might want to get used to it though. He's… prickly until he warms up to you."

"That sounds like the understatement of the century," Ashido said, shooting one last look at the door. "But enough about the world's angriest Pomeranian! Let's get moving before we end up stuck at school all night!"

Izuku smiled slightly at the image of Katsuki as a small, fluffy dog barking at anyone who came near, but was secretly happy to be petted. The boy in question would have raged at the comparison, but Izuku thought it was surprisingly apt.

* * *

Still smiling to himself he grabbed his bag and followed the two girls out of the classroom.

"So, Midoriya, are you doing okay?" Ashido asked after they had been walking for several minutes. They were a few blocks from UA at that point which she apparently deemed sufficient for whatever she wanted to talk to him about.

"Ummm, yes? Why do you ask?" he replied, cocking his head in confusion.

"Because Aizawa was laying into you pretty hard yesterday, and I wanted to make sure you weren't taking it too hard."

He felt a small sense of relief at the question. It wasn't exactly a comfortable topic, but it was far better than a few of the scenarios his mind had conjured up during the walk. He could deal with this.

"I'm fine." he replied. "It wasn't that bad."

"It looked pretty bad," Uraraka chimed in, "I couldn't hear what he was saying, but it looked like he was really laying into you. It—" she didn't finish her sentence, but Izuku could fill in the blanks. He'd looked like he'd been about to cry. Probably because he almost had.

"It—it was tough," he admitted, "I mean, no one likes to hear that they're useless, even if it's true. But he was right, and—" he stopped when he realized that neither Uraraka or Ashido was standing next to him. They had stopped where they were and both were staring at him with looks of shock and horror.

"Midoriya, you're not useless!" Uraraka cried.

"Yeah!" Ashido agreed immediately, "Aizawa was way out of line! I should have let Ura beat him up!" Uraraka nodded vigorously in agreement with the statement.

Izuku, however, was taken aback. "A-Ashido!"

"I'm not apologizing," she said, crossing her arms, "He was being mean for no reason."

"It… it wasn't for no reason." Izuku said, gazing at his hand. You could hardly tell he'd broken one of his fingers just the day before. The only evidence of the break was a thin white scar that ran along the inside edge of his finger from where his fingernail started down to the knuckle.

"One for— Super Power is dangerous. For me and for anyone I fight. If I'm going to be a Hero, then I need more control. And Aizawa… he pushed me towards that. He probably could have been gentler, but I don't think he was trying to be mean. Not really. I've been called useless for almost as long as I can remember, but the way he said it didn't seem like an insult, but like a challenge. Like he was daring me to do better. So please, don't be mad at him."

There was a long pause, during which Ashido eyed him curiously before letting out a long breath.

"Fiiiiiiine," she said grudgingly, "But if he does anything like that again, I'm going to douse his shoes in acid. No one bullies my friends!"

Izuku felt his heart leap into his throat. "F-friend?" he managed to squeak out.

"Of course!" Ashido said brightly, "We're hanging out after school and offering to help each other with our problems. I'd say that makes us friends!"

"O-oh!" Izuku said softly, "I… um, thank you Ashido. I-I'm glad to have you as a friend."

"Awwwww," Ashido said, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling him into a side hug, much to his embarrassment, "I'm glad to have you as a friend too. You too Uraraka! Get over here!"

Uraraka obliged, letting Ashido draw her into the group hug. The pink girl held them both for a moment, squeezing just tightly enough to be friendly without crossing into painful territory.

Izuku flushed at the close contact. His face was pressed right up against Ashido's, with Uraraka not much further away, and he couldn't help but smell their perfume. It was a fruity cocktail that proved to be very distracting for the boy who had spent almost no time around girls his own age since he was a child. He quickly devolved into a blushing mess, unable to marshal his thoughts or construct a sentence.

He slipped out of the embrace to preserve his own sanity. Ashido laughed openly at his reaction while Uraraka shot him a sympathetic smile. In spite of his embarrassment, Izuku felt a smile of his own creep across his face.

With their moods lightened considerably, the three made their way to the station once more. Izuku walked in the center, with Ashido on his left and Uraraka on his right, enjoying their company immensely. It was like walking home with Katuski, but even better. Their warm presence soothed him in a way he couldn't articulate. Even when he couldn't see them out of the corner of his eye, he imagined he could feel them, as though they were connected to him by an invisible string.

It only took them a few minutes to reach their destination. Mercifully, their earlier conversation had made them just late enough that they missed the after-school rush. The station was mostly empty, with just a few clusters of students and some haggard businessmen minding their own business while they waited for the next train to arrive.

Mina had been keeping up a steady stream of questions, anecdotes, and amusing stories since their talk. It made for an easy conversation, but it was hard to get a word in edgewise at times, especially for someone as polite as Uraraka or Izuku.

"Midoriya, can I ask you something?" Uraraka asked when there was finally a lull in the conversation.

"Of course," he said without hesitation.

"Ummm, earlier you said that people called you useless for a long time. But I can't really picture that. I mean, your Quirk is dangerous, but it's crazy strong too. That doesn't seem like something people would call useless."

"I was kinda wondering that too," Ashido admitted.

He sighed. He had known that the topic of One for All would come up eventually. It was why he and All Might had come up with a ready excuse for it. Still, he hated lying to his new friends, even if it was to protect All Might's secret.

"It's because, for a long time, I couldn't use my Quirk. Because my body couldn't handle the backlash, it wouldn't activate. The only reason I can use it now is because of all the training I did. But when I was younger, no one knew about that. The doctors diagnosed me with an invisible Quirk when I didn't show any abilities."

Both Ashido and Uraraka's eyes widened in surprise. He didn't blame them. The story was pretty fantastical as it was, even without the absolute bomb that was an inheritable Quirk.

"Some… some of my classmates didn't like me because I was friends with Kacchan. They bullied us. One of them, Shindo, was a lot worse than all the others. He started calling me 'Deku', because he thought I was just being lazy and not learning to use my Quirk." He chuckled dryly. "I guess, in a way, he was right."

The sudden blow to his head wasn't hard, and it didn't really hurt, but it did take Izuku completely by surprise. He looked up to see Ashido glaring at him, looking positively ferocious.

"They were so wrong, it's not even funny. I've known you for, like, two days, but I can already tell that you're smart, kind, and a great friend. Anyone who can't see that after years of knowing you is a total moron."

"A-Ashido…"

"Why 'Deku'?" Uraraka asked, "It doesn't really sound like an insult."

"It's from my name," Izuku explained. "A combination of 'useless' and 'Izuku'. To be fair, Shindo came up with it when we were four."

Uraraka hummed for a moment before nodding a little grudgingly. "I guess I can see that. But it doesn't sound like 'useless' to me. It sounds more like 'dekiru'. You know, like 'You can do it!' That's why I was confused. It sounds more like a compliment to me."

Izuku was stunned. The nickname had hounded him since he was little. He hated it with every fiber of his being, the way it made him feel small, the way it reminded him of one of the worst days in both his and Katsuki's life every time he heard it. But hearing Uraraka's explanation, hearing her say it, none of that was true. It felt like an entirely different nickname, one that would inspire him to rise to it.

One that he would be proud to wear.

It reminded him of a time a few years ago where Katsuki had brought up the idea of Izuku embracing the nickname.

_"Because fuck 'em. If they're gonna try and use it to beat you down, you turn that shit back around and wear it out of spite. Then they can't use it to hurt you."_

In the end, he hadn't been able to go through with it. The name just hurt too much, came with too many memories of rejected friendship. But this was different. This wasn't turning the name against his tormentors, or using it to hurt them. This was building something new to replace a legacy of pain.

"Y-you're right Uraraka," he said after a moment of silence. "I never thought of it that way before. And I… I think I'd like it if you called me Deku."

"Just like that? Are you sure?" she asked, concern clearly written on her face. It was only when he nodded his consent that she smiled softly. "Okay. I'm glad I could help, Deku."

Hearing it a second time wasn't as much of a shock, but it did send a little burst of warmth through him to have his friend giving him a nickname, even if it wasn't a new one.

Ashido hummed thoughtfully. "It's not terrible as nicknames go. Could be better though. Plus, I'm not one to re-use nicknames. So I think I'll go with… Midori!"

"Huh?" Izuku said, confused by her sudden assertion.

"Well, if you two are exchanging nicknames, I don't want to be left out of the loop."

"We weren't really exchanging nicknames," Uraraka replied.

Ashido shrugged, "Guess I'm ahead of the curve then." Just then, the train entered the station, causing her to sigh. "Phooey. That's me. Glad I could hang out with you guys though. See you at school tomorrow?"

"Definitely" Izuku and Uraraka said in unison, causing Ashido to chuckle as she left, waving to them both.

With Ashido gone, the pair found themselves in a bit of an awkward situation. Neither was very good at small talk at the best of times, and they found themselves at a complete loss when dealing with a member of the opposite sex.

It was Uraraka who eventually broke the silence.

"Thanks for waiting with me Mido— er, Deku."

"Of course," he said, smiling softly.

Uraraka's train pulled into the station a few moments later. Izuku was about to say goodbye when she pulled him into a tight hug. It didn't last for longer than a few seconds, but to Izuku timed seemed to slow down. He couldn't remember the last time someone other than his mother had given him a real hug. The closest Katsuki came to showing affection was the occasional slap on the back he would give Izuku after they both passed a test.

She skipped back after letting him go, giving him a bright smile.

"See you tomorrow, Deku!" she called, giving him a happy wave.

Before he could respond, an incoherent cry of rage rang through the station, accompanied by the crackling sound of small explosions.

* * *

Between the pointless day of class and the inane errand his mother had given him, Katsuki was already in a foul mood when he reached the station. The only consolation was that he had made good enough time that he might just be able to catch Izuku before his friend caught the train home. Izuku's hero monologues could be a bit hard to follow, but at least he would feel like he'd learned a little something about heroics today.

He arrived just in time to see Round Face pulling away from Izuku, leaving the boy looking ridiculously happy. Then, she said the last thing he expected to hear from her.

"See you tomorrow, Deku!" she said with a malicious smile.

Katsuki saw red. He'd known this was how it was going to go from the first time Izuku had mentioned his new "friend", but he'd let Izuku talk him into complacency even though he knew his friend was easy to dupe when it came to such offers.

He wouldn't make the same mistake again. He was going to set the record straight here and now, so no one would have the balls to try a stunt like this ever again.

Stalking forward, Katsuki let explosions dance along his palms, the smoke curling around his face in a move he had spent more time practicing then he would ever admit. It made him look extremely menacing, and he had no doubt that it would strike fear into the hearts of any criminals he encountered when he was a hero.

The pair's heads swung to look at him as he called out to them. He'd intended to tell Round Face off but his shout came out as more of a roar. It got the point across though.

"K-Kacchan it's not—"

Before Izuku could finish Katsuki thrust himself between the two and began treating Round Face to the best death glare he could manage. From the way she swallowed reflexively and took a step back, he knew it was a good one.

"Does it make you feel good?" he hissed, "Picking on a guy who just wants to believe the best in people? Building up his confidence just so you can shatter it?"

"It… it's not like that!" Izuku protested futilely. Katsuki was long past the point of listening to any arguments. He was firmly in his battle mindset.

"You know what's funny?" he asked, not a single trace of humor in his voice. "The fact that you're using that name says way more about you than him. Because even though bitches like you tried to tear him down for years, called him useless at every chance they had, he's still standing here. And he will always be better than you."

To Katsuki's surprise, after her initial fear response Round Face's demeanor changed. Her shoulders squared and her jaw set in a show of defiance.

"Maybe you should try listening if you're really friends. Midoriya said it was okay if I called him Deku." Uraraka crossed her arms and did her best to glare _him_ down.

"_Izuku_ is too nice for his own good. You could pour soup in his lap and he'd apologize if he thought it meant you could be friends."

"Hey!" Izuku protested.

"That's why he has me. Because someone has to call people like you out on your bullshit. And to tell you that anyone who hurts him like this again is getting blown to hell, regardless of the consequences."

"Kacchan, it's really okay!" Izuku protested once more.

"Shhh. You're not involved in this!" he hissed.

"He should be!" Round Face snapped, taking a small step forward. "Considering we're both saying the same thing, but you just won't listen. The only one making a problem here is you!"

Katsuki did the same, willing the small explosions cracking in his palms to grow larger and brighter as more sweat poured into his palms. In response, Round Face pushed her sleeves up to reveal surprisingly toned arms.

When they were just a step apart, however, something even more surprising happened.

"Stop," Izuku said firmly, stepping between the two with his arms spread wide. Instead of the usual anxiety, his eyes were clear and sharp, staring at Katsuki determinedly. "I don't want you two to fight over this. Kacchan, Uraraka's right. I asked her to call me Deku because when she says it, it feels different. Like something I _want_ to be called. And Uraraka? I know Kacchan seems like he's just being mean, but he's a good guy. He's just worried about me because of some of the stuff I told you about."

There was a tense moment where nobody moved and Katsuki was fairly certain that Izuku was holding his breath. That was proof, if nothing else, that Izuku was committed to this course of action. If Katsuki did anything now, even if he turned out to be right in the end, Izuku would be upset for weeks, if not months.

Growling in frustration, Katsuki stepped back and turned his back on Round Face. His instincts, honed from years of expecting ambushes, screamed at him for doing it, but he knew he wouldn't be able to look at her and remain civil.

She apparently felt the same. They stayed on either side of Izuku, pointedly looking away from each other while they waited for the next train to arrive. Twice Izuku attempted to break the silence, only to be cowed into submission by their glares. Neither was in the mood to talk with the other around, even to Izuku.

After what felt like an age, Izuku and Katsuki's train pulled into the station. Round Face had missed hers during their confrontation, and now had to wait at least fifteen minutes for the next one. Katsuki had to admit that the inconvenience made him more than a little happy.

Izuku hung back while Katsuki boarded the train, no doubt apologizing for him as usual. It was bullshit, but Katsuki was used to it at this point. Katsuki fought and Izuku tried to smooth shit over, even if he didn't need to.

The train ride was equally quiet. Katsuki's 'villain' reputation preceded him and the conductor was watching the two from the moment they got on. Any disruption or perceived threat was likely to result in them having to walk home, something Katsuki was firmly not in the mood for.

Instead, Katsuki stewed in his irritation at the pink cheeked brunette. He pictured multiple ways to get back at her, none of which were liable to occur, but the exercise kept him occupied for the entire ride.

"Ummm, Kacchan I—" Izuku started once they stepped off the train.

Katsuki held up a hand to stop him before he could finish.

"No. I'm not listening to you give another speech about how people are really good and I might like them if I only gave someone a chance. You want to be friends with Round Face? Fine. But I'm not getting involved anymore, and when she does end up stabbing you in the back? I'm going to laugh my ass off at how right I was before I beat her to a pulp. Clear?"

Izuku looked stunned, but he didn't object, which was enough for Katsuki. He spun on his heel and stomped away, leaving Izuku looking forlorn and slightly defeated.

_Fucking hell. _Katsuki thought to himself. _Today was miserable. School is boring, Izuku's emotional, and I still didn't get to fight anyone. _He turned his gaze up to the sky and put his hands together in a mockery of a prayer. _Hey, if anyone up there is listening, do me a favor and let me fight someone tomorrow._

_And if it could be Round Face, well, that would just be perfect._

* * *

"Well today was miserable" Aizawa said, dropping into his favorite chair in the teacher's lounge.

"Come on Shota," Midnight teased, "You can't complain about teaching them the day after you committed to doing it. You need to wait at least a week."

"The kids aren't the problem," he replied with a glare, "Not in this case. I just resent having to spend almost half a day while watching them perform the stupidest tasks known to man. At this point, I want to take whoever invented the term 'icebreaker' and strangle them."

"You know Vlad had to do the same thing, right?" she shot back.

"So I should be happy that someone else is miserable with me, instead of annoyed that two pro heroes have to spend their time uselessly babysitting a bunch of know-nothing brats?"

"I would hardly call your efforts useless," Nedzu cut in, stepping into the teacher's lounge, "And your assistance proved most valuable today, Shota."

"Glad I could help, Nedzu," Aizawa said through gritted teeth.

Nedzu stepped over to the beleaguered man and patted him gently on the knee. "I mean what I say. Your assistance today was quite helpful, even if you feel it was a waste of time. Your presence kept the students focused on their tasks, which in turn allowed me to collect all of the data I needed in just one session."

"That's a relief," Aizawa said with a sigh. He relaxed further into his chair, doing an impressive imitation of a boneless corpse.

"Quite," Nedzu replied with a smile, "The lineup for tomorrow's battle trail should be arriving any moment. Be sure to look over it with All Might before you both head home. Additionally, I would recommend you attend the trial itself, even though you are not required to. It may prove to be quite informative for you."

As he spoke the printer in the lounge hummed to life and began to spit a few sheets out. Nedzu had timed his statement perfectly, reminding everyone yet again of how versatile and fearsome his Quirk could be when it was applied.

With another smile and a small bow, the diminutive principal stepped out of the lounge leaving everyone wondering what exactly he meant.

Midnight stepped over to the printer and lifted the top sheet up to see it. She frowned slightly as she read its contents.

"Well, Nedzu was right. This is certainly going to be interesting."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

And there we go. A little bit of a break before we jump into the action again. I always kind of wondered what regular classes would be like at UA given the strange personalities of the teachers.

Next up is the battle trial, which leaves me with a question for you all. I've re-balanced the teams, which means things are going to play out differently than usual. There are going to be three fights with no "Main" characters in them. Would you like to see a full perspective of the battle from the participant's view, a breakdown of the fights as an "except from Izuku's Hero journal", or just skip past them in favor of keeping the story moving? Let me know what you guys think!

On a different note, if you've taken a look at the story on AO3, you might have noticed that I had originally planned to put Ibara in 1A. However, just before the last chapter updated, I realized that would put 1B at a disadvantage in terms of combat power. As such, Pony Tsunatori has replaced Ojiro, while Shinso has taken her slot in 1B. Apologies to any Ojiro fans, but I'd rather have a character who's personality trait isn't "Is really boring".

Thank you to Raef Darksbane for editing this chapter. You're a shining golden god.


	6. Fight You For Him

Even though he should have expected it, the empty place at the table the next morning sent a spike of pain through Izuku's chest. Katsuki hadn't shown up for breakfast, or even texted anything since the previous night. The fact that Inko had laid out a place and cooked extra for the boy only made his absence more apparent.

Izuku couldn't blame his mother. He hadn't told her about his and Katsuki's disagreement yet, partially because he'd been busy explaining the events of the entrance exam to her, and partially out of an irrational worry that if he spoke about the disagreement it would somehow make things worse.

Not that he could really change the situation. He'd tried to bring it up to both Katsuki and Uraraka the night before via text, but neither had been receptive. Uraraka had told him that she wasn't in the mood to discuss the confrontation while Katsuki had simply ignored the messages. Izuku couldn't quite blame either of them, but he wished that there was some way to fix things. The thought of his two best friends growing to despise each other filled him with a sense of dread and despair.

"Izuku, is everything okay?" Inko asked, interrupting his thoughts. "You looked like you were feeling down last night, and I can't help but wonder if that has something to do with Katsuki not showing up today…"

Slowly, Izuku nodded. "Y-Yeah. There was a… misunderstanding yesterday. Kacchan and Uraraka ended up fighting because of me. I wanted to do something to fix it, but I just didn't know what to say. And then it was too late, and now neither of them want to talk about it. I just… I just want them to get along."

Inko reached across the table and laid her hand on Izuku's, patting it gently. "Oh honey. I know that must be tough. But Izuku, you can't always fix things for other people. Sometimes they just have to work things out for themselves."

Izuku's heart sank. A small part of him knew she was right. There was nothing he could say that would make Katsuki change his mind at this point. Uraraka might come around given an explanation and some time, but that was assuming that nothing else went wrong in the meantime. Knowing Katsuki as well as he did, Izuku knew that his friend would say or do something in that time that would just take them back to square one.

"You don't need to worry though," Inko said, drawing his attention back to her. "Katsuki is a lot like his mother was at that age. He just needs some time to blow off steam. Once he's done, he'll be back. Mark my words."

"Thanks Mom," Izuku said.

She gave his hand a final squeeze before drawing back to collect the dishes. "You're welcome dear. You should hurry up though, or you might miss the train."

Izuku glanced at the clock and saw that he only had five minutes left to get ready. He scarfed down his breakfast, choking a little in his haste, and rushed through the rest of his preparations.

* * *

It was close, but Izuku barely managed to make it to the platform in time to catch the train. For once, his anxiety had actually helped him out. Before the start of the school year, Izuku had taken the time to measure his commute to UA and to find the path with the least amount of foot traffic. Thanks to this, he was able to run almost the entire way to the platform at a dead sprint and make up much of his lost time.

The platform was crowded with commuters on their way to work and other students on their way to school. In the sea of dark business suits and dull high school uniforms, UA's own uniform stood out like a beacon, and drew Izuku's eyes to the only other person on the platform wearing one.

Katsuki stood near the edge of the platform, arms crossed and a single finger tapping a furious rhythm while he glared at anyone who came near him. The rest of the crowd had obliged his attitude by keeping as far away from him as they could given the limited space available.

"Umm, g-good morning Kacchan," Izuku said, trying his best to swallow his nerves as he made his way up to his friend.

"'Sup," he replied, his tone only slightly more antagonistic than normal.

"Oh, just… uh, waiting for the train, you know?" Izuku replied, cringing internally at how lame he sounded.

Katsuki only sighed at that before looking Izuku dead in the eyes. "Please tell me you're not gonna be like that all day."

When Izuku didn't respond, Katsuki reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. After a couple of moments fooling with it, he found what he was searching for and held the device out to Izuku. Glancing down, Izuku found that it was an article about a new local hero who had managed to stop a bank robbery single-handedly the day before. Izuku vaguely remembered seeing some buzz about the incident on the hero forums he frequented the night before, but he had been too tired and too out of sorts to dive deep into the information.

Izuku looked up from the phone, causing Katsuki to roll his eyes in exasperation. "It's a distraction, dumbass. I don't want to have to hear you stuttering through small talk the rest of the way to UA. So, and I can't believe I'm saying this, go full hero nerd on this. Give me a break down. Strengths, weaknesses, who he'd be good partners with, the whole shebang."

The knot of tension that had been growing in Izuku's stomach all morning relaxed at the offer. True, they were putting off dealing with the problem for later, but that was pretty much how Katsuki dealt with any problem he couldn't intimidate or beat into submission. It was a solution, however, and at this point Izuku was willing to take anything.

The train ride blurred by as Izuku broke down the new hero. He didn't have a whole lot to go on, since the bank robbers hadn't put up much of a fight, so a fair amount of his analysis ended up being guesswork, but he did his best. Despite his best efforts to keep his voice down, his eager analysis earned him a few questioning looks from the other passengers in the car, but after they saw his uniform most of those looks changed to ones of understanding. Izuku even heard a few commenting on his diligence and forethought.

It was odd to hear. For so many years, everyone besides Katsuki had referred to his analysis as creepy or obsessive. The sudden reversal of attitude gave him a sense of whiplash.

"Fuckin' turncoats," Katsuki muttered, as if reading Izuku's thoughts.

Izuku placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, but didn't respond to the statement. Instead, he continued with his analysis as if nothing had happened. After all, the analysis was for Katsuki and him, and he had more than enough experience tuning other people out.

By the end of the train ride, Izuku felt like things were almost back to normal, which was, of course, when things went horribly wrong.

"Morning Deku!" Uraraka said, sweet as could be.

Katsuki instantly tensed, his slouch becoming even more pronounced as he glared from under his hair at the new arrival. As before, Uraraka didn't even flinch. She kept a bright smile on her face, though it didn't reach her eyes in the slightest.

"M-M-Morning Uraraka." Izuku felt his back stiffen as his friends locked eyes.

You could cut the tension with a knife, and even the surrounding crowd could feel it. Despite the bustle of the emerging passengers, not a single person came within five feet of them. Even Izuku found himself wanting to keep away, though he resisted the urge. He needed to stay close, to be ready to intervene if things should go south. Not that he was entirely sure what he could, or even should do in such a situation. Who would he even help in such a case?

In the end, however, Izuku didn't have to choose. Before a fight could break out, Uraraka broke eye contact with Katsuki and stepped forward, planting herself firmly at Izuku's right side, directly opposite Katsuki.

"Ready for our first heroics class?" she asked with the same level of bright enthusiasm she always displayed. Only a hint of tension in her voice spoke to any other emotions she was feeling.

"I, uhm, not-not really?" Izuku replied, glancing between the two. They were both pointedly facing forward, avoiding any chance of accidental interaction.

"That's fair," she said, "I'm pretty nervous myself. But I'm kinda excited too. I mean, imagine if they let us start rescue training on the first day? Wouldn't that be cool?"

Izuku nodded slowly in agreement. In his opinion, learning how to save people was one of the most important steps to becoming a hero, and he couldn't wait for the lesson. In fact, Uraraka's words had reignited the excitement inside him that had been buried by his worries over her and Katsuki's fight. His back straightened a little as he imagined himself saving people like he'd watched All Might do a million times, a reassuring smile on his face the entire time.

"Come on!" Uraraka said, the smile on her own face growing when she saw his reaction. She grabbed his arm and began to pull him towards UA. "Let's hurry up and get to class!"

Izuku worried for a brief moment about Katsuki's reaction to her actions, but the blond boy merely clicked his tongue and matched their pace.

It wasn't exactly how he had pictured it, but Izuku found himself walking to school with his two best friends, and couldn't help but be a little happy at the development.

* * *

Izuku sighed in relief as he set his tray down. Navigating UA's cafeteria had been a nightmare for him. Lunchtime seemed to bring out the worst in the students, with everyone trying to get their food in the least amount of time and not caring too much about anyone that got in their way while they did so. Izuku had spent more time apologizing for bumping into people while trying to cross the room than he had actually walking. Thankfully, no one had tried to bite his head off for keeping them from their food, though he had caught more than a few irate glares.

For Izuku, however, the table wasn't exactly the port in a storm he had been looking for. Katsuki and Uraraka had claimed the seats on either side of him as soon as he sat down, leaving Iida looking very confused on the other side of the table. It was a cramped seating arrangement, but neither of his friends seemed willing to relent in the slightest, leaving Izuku to do his best not to elbow them as he ate.

He had only just started to figure out how to take a sip of his drink without elbowing Uraraka in the larynx when Ashido dropped into one of the seats next to Iida.

"Morning!" she said, flashing the table a thousand-watt smile. "How's everyone getting on this morning?"

Izuku winced as Ashido barreled right into the subject he had been hoping to avoid talking about. Admittedly, she didn't know how loaded the topic was, but Izuku still found himself wishing she had chosen any other greeting.

When no one offered a response to her question, Ashido frowned a little. "That bad, huh?"

Izuku could only nod in response. Katsuki and Uraraka said nothing, still set in avoiding any interaction with each other. Iida was silent as well, though he seemed to be waiting for a chance to jump in once he understood exactly what was going on.

"In that case, why don't we liven things up?" Ashido said, waving to Kirishima and Kaminari at the next table over.

The pair, who appeared to have been waiting for her signal, grabbed either side of their table and dragged it over, combining their two groups into one.

"Return that table at once!" Iida barked, "Rearranging school property on a whim is disrespectful to both the staff and our fellow students!"

"Calm down dude," Kaminari said, "It's just a table, the staff don't care."

"Plus," Ashido said, pointing to the students surrounding the tables former position who had scooted their chairs a bit further back, "we're actually giving people some more leg room."

When Iida still didn't look convinced, she sighed. "Would it make you feel better if we swore to put it back when we're done with lunch?"

Iida looked extremely torn for a moment, but eventually relaxed and nodded his agreement. With that done, the rest of the now expanded table relaxed and seated themselves. Izuku, Katsuki, and Uraraka spread out on one side of the table, while Kaminari and Kirishima joined Ashido and Iida on the opposite side, giving Izuku a chance to really examine the two.

Kirishima had an easy smile and a friendly demeanor that was a little at odds with his appearance. Izuku had always thought of dyed hair as a rebellion, one that was reserved for delinquents and malcontents. Kirishima was pretty much the exact opposite. Izuku had only known him for a short time, but he got the impression of someone who could be friends with just about anyone, and would stick with those friends through thick and thin. It was an attitude that Izuku greatly admired, and he dearly hoped that they would get to spend some time getting to know each other over the next few weeks.

Kaminari was exceptionally friendly as well. He was quick to crack a joke, and he laughed at nearly every joke told, no matter how terrible it was. Even after two short days, he had already established himself as the class clown. Unlike the other class clowns Izuku had known, however, he seemed more inclined to laugh with people than at them, something Izuku was immensely thankful for.

"So, what do you think our first hero class is going to be like?" Ashido asked, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"Deku and I were talking about that earlier," Uraraka chimed in, "We're hoping it's rescue training!"

"That would be fun," Ashido said, pressing a finger to her chin in contemplation, "Although… how would that really work? Do they have a fake burning building that we pull baby dolls out of?"

"UA's rescue program is second to none," Iida said. "I am sure that they will not resort to half measures when it comes to our training."

"So real orphans and a real burning building then?" Kaminari asked.

"Of course not!" Iida barked, looking offended at the mere idea that UA would act in such an irresponsible manner.

"Y'all are thinking too big," Katsuki cut in. "Class has been nothing but bullshit so far, and today isn't going to be any different."

"Way to be a downer, dude," Kaminari said, frowning at Katsuki.

"Can it, Sparky," Katsuki replied, glaring back at the other blond.

"Bakugo is probably right," Kirishima said. "School's been pretty slow after that first day. Might wanna keep our expectations low."

"Where's the fun in that?" Ashido asked. "I have lots of expectations! So… what if we chose hero names today?"

"Isn't it a bit too early?" Uraraka asked. "I mean, we haven't even started hero training."

"That's exactly why!" Ashido replied, "Where better to start building our image than from our names?"

"That is… a good point Ashido," Iida said, "although I would argue that a hero's persona should be based upon their actions, rather than the other way around."

Ashido shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat. So, what do you want to do in class today Iida?"

Iida took a moment to adjust his glasses and collect his thoughts before he responded. "A lesson on the etiquette of a hero. I have often admired how professional heroes comport themselves, both in the field and in interviews. A lecture about such a subject from a professional hero would be a most excellent way to begin our foray into heroics."

"And I call Izuku a nerd," Katsuki muttered, shaking his head. "At least he doesn't ask for _more_ boring-ass lectures."

"And what are you hoping class is going to be, Bakugo?" Ashido asked.

"Combat," he replied simply.

Uraraka snorted in what might have been derision, or just a suppressed sneeze. Katsuki glared at her, the first time either of them had looked directly at the other since meeting at the train station, but didn't say anything. When Uraraka made no further comment, Katsuki clicked his tongue and turned his attention back to his meal.

There was a moment of silence while half of the table's occupants tried to figure out how exactly to respond to that without getting their heads bitten off.

"W-whatever we're doing," Izuku said, breaking in before things could worsen, "We should all do our best, and have fun."

His statement broke the atmosphere of tension that had been building and turned everyone's attention to their feelings of excitement for the coming lesson once more. Smiles broke out across the table, though Katsuki continued to scowl as hard as ever.

"Excellently put, Midoriya," Iida said, adjusting his glasses slightly. "Today will indeed be an excellent opportunity to learn, if we make it one."

"Heck yeah!" Kirishima said, pumping his fist, "We're gonna crush it!"

Izuku could only smile as the rest of the table chimed in. The day had been a crash course in resolving tension, but it seemed like he was getting better at it little by little, and with the day halfway over, he only needed to keep this up for a few more hours. After that would be the class party and then the weekend, with plenty of time for Katsuki to cool down. Izuku hoped that, with time, he could bring his friend around on his friendship with Uraraka.

That hope relaxed him somewhat, and he spent the rest of lunch relaxing and chatting with his growing circle of friends as they eagerly awaited their proper introduction to the world of heroes.

* * *

"I AM HERE TO SERVE AS YOUR TEACHER!"

"ALL MIGHT?!" The collective cry of surprise was probably audible throughout the building. Even though the class had been inundated with pro heroes since coming to UA, this was an entirely different experience. All Might was a living legend, a titan among men. He towered over everyone in the room, both physically and with his raw presence in a way that made everyone sit up and pay attention.

"This is awesome!" Kirishima said, practically bouncing in his seat, "I can't believe we're getting taught by someone so manly!"

"Indeed!" Iida nodded approvingly, "It is comforting to know our education is being handled by someone so experienced!"

"Isn't that his silver age costume?" Asui remarked.

"It totally is!" Ashido said. "Kinda makes me feel like a kid again. It's so retro!"

"All Might is cool!" Tsunotori exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air. She followed with a string of rapid English that Izuku couldn't even begin to parse out, but he got the feeling that it was more praise for the hero.

Izuku, for his part, smiled broadly. Thanks to the message that had come with his acceptance letter, he had had an inkling that something like this was coming. Even still, he was exceptionally glad to see All Might standing at the podium in front of them. He had grown used to his mentor's advice and encouragement during the long months of training for the entrance exam, and he was glad to see that wasn't going to be ending just yet.

"Welcome!" All Might said, his booming voice silencing all other conversation in the room instantly. "It is a pleasure to meet you all, and to see that you're so enthusiastic! Today is your first day of foundational heroics, which you can think of as hero-ing 101. In this class, you'll learn the basics of being a pro, and what it means to fight on the side of justice!"

He paused for a moment to flex dramatically before continuing, "Now, without further ado, let's start things off with a bang! Today's lesson will be battle training! After all, stopping villains is one of the most important parts of being a hero!"

Izuku's stomach dropped. Their first class and they were already jumping straight into combat? Wasn't that skipping a few steps?

Katsuki, meanwhile, was wearing a devil's grin. No doubt he had been itching for this day to come since he had turned in his application. He had chafed under the watchful eyes of their teachers, who had always been ready to punish any infractions quickly and harshly since he and Izuku were children. Now, Katsuki had been given the green light to exercise his considerable martial skills in an environment where he would only be praised for his efforts, and it was obvious he was going to milk the situation for every bit of enjoyment he could get.

Under other circumstances, Izuku would have been happy for his friend, but at the moment he could only pray that he wouldn't end up facing Katsuki. Their sparring sessions to prepare for UA had proven that Katsuki was a fierce opponent even when he was holding back, and Izuku was sure he would be bringing his 'A' game.

"But first, we'll have to get you into your hero mindsets!" All Might said, whipping a small remote out of nowhere. "And the best way to do that is suiting up!"

At his command, a series of shelves slid smoothly out of the wall. Each contained a number of cases marked with large green numbers.

"Several months ago, you all submitted your physical information along with your Quirk registration and costume requests. Now, you get to see the results of all that paperwork; your very own hero costumes! So, why don't you all get dressed, then come out and meet me at Ground Beta!"

A cheer went up as the students surged forward, each one fighting to be the first to grab their costumes. They wasted no time pulling them out and admiring the careful tailoring and craftsmanship that had gone into bringing their designs to life. There were a few students left disappointed when reality failed to match up with the fantasy they had been building up since childhood, but on the whole, the mood in the class was one of jubilation.

Izuku avoided the crush of bodies, choosing instead to remain at his desk while he clutched at the bag that contained his costume. It had been a surprise when his mother had revealed the green bodysuit to him, one that had turned both of them into sobbing messes for several minutes.

It had taken quite a bit of effort to pull himself together, but somehow Izuku had managed to do it. Afterwards, he had laid out the costume and admired it. It was everything he had ever wanted, and it fit almost perfectly when he pulled it on, needing only minor adjustments. Despite his mother's claims that she wasn't much of a seamstress, Izuku hadn't found so much as a single flaw. Her love for him shone through with every stitch, and Izuku could hardly wait to don it officially.

It didn't take long for the chaos at the front of the room to resolve. Once everyone had finished looking over their new costumes, they filed out of the room and made their way quickly towards the changing rooms. Most kept it to a brisk walk, though Izuku heard Iida reprimanding a few who had decided that a lecture for running in the hallways was worth it to get to their destination a little faster. Izuku couldn't really blame them. His own feet itched to break out into a sprint as he walked down the hallway, which seemed much longer than it had the day before. It was only when he made it to the changing rooms that his excitement abated a little.

As Izuku donned his own costume, he couldn't help but admire the varied designs his classmates had created. Some, like Todoroki or Tokoyami had gone for simple costumes that could almost pass for street clothes at the right angle. He assumed this was due to their Quirks not needing support items, and being mostly separate from their bodies. Then there were people like Aoyama and Katsuki, who had gone for as much flash as they could pack into a single outfit (literally in Aoyama's case).

Katsuki's costume had actually come as something of a surprise to Izuku. The final product was quite different from the one he and Izuku had designed together when they were children. Izuku wasn't sure how many of the changes were due to changes in Katsuki's tastes, and how many had been made by the costume department to make the suit more socially acceptable. There were certainly a lot fewer skulls than the last time Izuku had seen at the design.

"Your costume looks good, Kacchan," Izuku said, once he had finished pulling his own on.

"Damn pencil pushers took all the spikes off, but it's fine other than that," Katsuki said, sliding an oversized, grenade themed gauntlet onto his arm.

Izuku did a double take at the gauntlets. They had been one of the later additions to the costume, created after a long discussion between the two over how few heroes were able to reliably fight at both close and long range. Izuku had proposed a system for catching Katsuki's sweat and channeling it into a confined channel, enhancing the explosion in a similar manner to squeezing a garden hose. They had never been able to figure out a system that would actually work, however, so Izuku was surprised to see them included in the final design.

"Kacchan, do those actually work?" Izuku asked, pointing at the gauntlets.

Katsuki grinned. "Hell yeah they do. Once they're charged, all I have to do is pull the pin, and boom!"

Izuku frowned. "How much do they store? Because that could be really dangerous if someone took a direct hit."

"That's the idea," Katsuki replied, sliding the other gauntlet into place. "Someone gets hit with one of these, and the fight's over. 'Sides, can't be too dangerous if the school approved them, right?"

"I guess you're right…" Izuku agreed tentatively. "Just… be careful, okay?"

Katsuki scoffed and looked away. "Fine. Not like I'm gonna need them today anyways. No one here is putting up a real fight." He gestured towards Mineta and Kaminari, who were not so subtly discussing their disappointment over UA's lack of coed changing rooms.

"Kacchan, they deserve to be here as much as you do. They passed the same tests as you."

"Says more about the exams than about them," Katsuki replied. "But I'll tell you what. If any of them manages to put up something resembling a decent fight, I'll owe you a ramen next time we hang out."

"And apologize too?" Izuku added.

"Don't hold your breath."

* * *

"They say that clothes make the pros, and right now you are living proof of that!" All Might said as the class stepped out onto Ground Beta, his ever present smile seeming to grow even wider, somehow. "You look so cool!"

There was a collective blush from the crowd of students at the hero's words. Everyone was standing taller, Izuku most of all, as he tried to live up to All Might's example.

"But, without further ado, it's time we got started!" All Might continued, snapping everyone's attention back to him. "For your first combat exercise, you will be splitting into groups of two and competing for control of an objective!"

Iida raised his hand, nearly blinding a few of his classmates as sunlight bounced off his meticulously polished white armor, "Sir, since we have returned to the same fake city as our entrance exam, will we be conducting urban battles once again?"

"An excellent question!" All Might responded. "That was, in fact, the original plan for today. However, looking at you all now, I believe you're all adjusting fine to the curriculum here. As such, we're going to be jumping ahead a little. Today, we'll be taking things indoors!"

"Indoors?"

"Indeed! While most of the confrontations you see on the news take place outside, statistically speaking, most villain activity takes place indoors. Backroom deals, home invasions, that sort of thing. In fact, some of the most difficult battles I've fought have been against criminals in their hideouts!"

The class took a brief moment to wonder what kind of criminal it would take to get All Might to refer to a battle as "difficult". Hardly any of them could remember hearing about a criminal encounter that the hero hadn't resolved in record time, and without breaking a sweat.

"Now, what's say we get you paired up?" All Might asked, pulling a small note card out of his belt, "The teams have been pre-selected, so no need to worry about being the last one picked!"

The attempt at humor was overshadowed by Iida cutting in, "Sir, wouldn't it be more realistic to have us select our own partners?"

His question set off a chain reaction, with several students chiming in their own questions about scoring methods, how badly they could injure their opponents (Izuku winced at that question from Katsuki), and whether or not they were at risk of being dropped from the program if they failed to measure up to the hero's standards.

All Might looked overwhelmed by the sudden influx of questions, which surprised Izuku. The hero had shown great skill in dealing with reporters in the past, and he never seemed to get flustered by paparazzi, or when fans approached him out of the blue. Then again, Izuku supposed that it might just be a matter of experience. He had been dealing with fans and the media for years, but teaching was a whole new experience for him.

"I, uh, I think the pre-selected teams are actually pretty realistic," Izuku said, addressing Iida. In his attempt to overcome his nerves, however, he put a bit too much force into his voice than was strictly necessary, causing it to carry to the rest of his classmates as well, who all fell silent to listen. "Pro heroes don't always get to choose who they work with in the field. If there's an unexpected fight, we might have to make do with whoever's available. So this is kinda like prep for that."

"I see!" Iida said, bowing to All Might, "Please excuse my rudeness in questioning your methods."

"That's quite all right!" the hero said, recovering quickly, "Questions are, of course, perfectly natural. It's our first time doing this, after all. Still, our time is somewhat limited today, and we have quite a few matches to get through. If you still have questions, I will be happy to answer them while everyone gets organized."

Thankfully, the process didn't take very long. Within two minutes everyone had found their partner and were waiting to find out who their opponents would be. To Izuku's disappointment, he wasn't paired with any of his friends. Instead, he was paired with Mineta, a boy who he had barely spoken to aside from a brief exchange during one of the icebreaker activities they had done in class the day before.

"Now that we've got that settled, it's time to announce our first match!" All Might boomed, his usual enthusiasm and cheer back in full force, "We will be seeing team one, consisting of Katsuki Bakugo and Kyouka Jirou, as the heroes, facing off against team six, consisting of Ochaco Uraraka and Pony Tsunotori, who will be playing the villains! Let's have an excellent first match from you all!"

"Yeah," Katsuki said, grinning wickedly, "lets."

_Oh _Izuku thought to himself _This is going to be bad._

* * *

"We should probably come up with some kind of plan," Ears said, eyeing Katsuki as he stretched in preparation for the fight.

Each side had been given a few minutes to prepare themselves, and Katsuki was taking full advantage to both limber himself up and to work up a bit of a sweat. By the time the match started, he was going to be in perfect form—and blow away the competition in one fell swoop.

"I have a plan. I'm going to blast my way in, beat them senseless, and show the extras in the booth why they should just quit now and save themselves the trouble of having to be compared to me."

"Are you kidding me?" Ears said, glaring daggers at him, "Putting aside how stupid it is that you think you can fight them two on one, we're supposed to be working as a team."

"Don't need your help, and don't want it," Katsuki replied, dropping into a squat while he worked the last of the kinks out of his legs. "I'm going to win this single-handedly, so just stay out here and twiddle your thumbs or some shit."

"And what if they decide to hide instead of fighting you, O brilliant tactician?"

"Then I'll start blasting walls until I find them, or the building falls on top of them, whichever comes first."

"I… you can't be serious. There are so many things wrong with that plan, not the least of which is that we're supposed to be _heroes_! I'm pretty sure dropping buildings on people is more of a villain thing."

"It's a small building. They'll live."

"That's not the point!" Ears was sounding more than a little strained at this point, but she pressed on. "Will you stop being an ass for five minutes and just work with me?"

"STUDENTS! Your time begins now!" All Might's voice boomed throughout the arena.

Ears flinched at the noise, clutching at her ears as if she had just been hit. Katsuki filled that tidbit away for later. Even if he never got the opportunity to use it himself, Izuku would certainly appreciate the extra info for his hero journal.

"That's my queue," Katsuki said. "Now, I'm going to go win this. See you in the observation room."

He rocketed forward before she could say anything else, leaving her coughing angrily as he prepared to engage in some sweet catharsis.

The door on the front looked flimsy enough to be kicked in, and Katsuki was about to blast it in when something caught his eye. Through the grime of one of the second story windows, a flash of pink fabric was barely visible when one squinted. Katsuki instantly began to grin at the sight. They were making things easy for him.

He wasn't quite able to use his explosions to fly, not that he hadn't tried, but he had more than enough power and control to send himself rocketing towards a wide window at the end of the second floor, just a little ways down from where he had seen the flash of color.

He burst through into some kind of office that had been cleared of most of its furniture, leaving him plenty of space to land with a roll. He came to a stop in the dead center of the room, ready to leap into action at the slightest sign of an attack while he surveyed his surroundings.

The office was empty, but halfway down the hall in front of him was an extremely surprised looking Round Face. She was positioned to ambush anyone who came up the stairs, a position that now left her exposed and vulnerable to Katsuki's attacks.

She scrambled for a better position, nearly tripping over herself in her haste. Katsuki simply took a moment to brush some stray bits of glass off of his costume. He hadn't intended for this to be an ambush after all, he'd just wanted to get into the fight a little faster.

Lowering himself into a crouch, Katsuki took a deep breath and let it out slowly. _Oh yeah _he thought, _This is gonna be cathartic._

With that, Katsuki blasted forward, and the fight began.

* * *

Bakugo was _fast_. Ochaco had known that going into the battle, had seen evidence of it during their Quirk assessment two days before, but she still wasn't quite prepared for the speed and ferocity with which he attacked.

He seemed to blur around the edges as he careened towards her on a pair of twin explosions, a ferocious smile on his face. It was all she could do to fling herself out of the way of the blow, a breeze rustling her hair as he blew past.

She didn't even have a moment to relax, however. Another explosion sounded behind her, and Ochaco had just enough time to spin around to face her opponent before his leg slammed into her side and sent her stumbling backwards. He had used the second explosion to redirect the momentum from his charge into a kick, turning the already powerful blow into something truly devastating.

She gasped as pain lanced up her side, her ribs screaming in protest as she fought to stay on her feet. She did her best to stay in a fighting stance, but before she could regain her balance, Bakugo was on her once more. This time, he aimed a punch at her stomach, trying to drive the air from her lungs. In response, Ochaco threw herself forward into the blow. The blow was painful, but off target, and she managed to keep her breathing under control as she tried to grab onto him and active her Quirk.

Bakugo leapt backwards out of her range in one swift motion, the clear winner of the exchange. Even so, Ochaco took a small measure of pride in the fact that he looked surprised to see her still standing.

She didn't have time to rest on her laurels though. Seizing the initiative once more, Bakugo pushed off from the ground, lunging towards Ochaco with both hands outstretched and crackling with small explosions.

She dodged to the side once more, pushing off from the wall as hard as she could. The force of twin explosions behind her as Bakugo impacted the wall crashed into her back and shattered her already unstable balance. She tumbled to the ground, barely managing to turn her fall into a roll part way through. She desperately wished she were more coordinated and that she could use the roll to spring to her feet like she had seen heroes and gymnasts do on TV. Instead she waited until the world stopped spinning quite so furiously before scrambling to her feet.

Down the hall a ways, Bakugo was rubbing at his face, his oversized gauntlets making the task more difficult than it would normally have been. Chips of concrete lay around his feet, blasted away from the wall when he had impacted it.

With a start, Ochaco realized why he wasn't chasing her. He had kept his eyes open during his attack, unwilling to lose sight of her for even a second. His dedication had backfired, however, as his fists struck the wall. Some bit of concrete or dust had become lodged in his eye, and his fashion choices were now making the process of dislodging it difficult. Suddenly, her decision to include eye protection in her costume seemed downright prescient.

She briefly considered closing the gap and using Bakugo's distraction to attack, but decided against it. Her martial knowledge was limited to a half-remembered self-defense class she had taken when she was younger and a few questionably realistic moves she had picked up from action movies, none of which was likely to help her in a fist fight against the highly skilled, highly "motivated" Bakugo.

Instead, Ochaco spun around and sprinted down the hallway away from her opponent. The villain team had been given time to prepare their defenses, and she had taken full advantage of this. Just around the corner was a pile of various pieces of office decor that Uraraka had collected from the building. She ran her hands through the pile in one swift motion, applying her Quirk as quickly as she could to as many objects as possible. It was a motley assortment, but she had faith that they would work.

She had just enough time to form her minefield and get clear before Bakugo came rocketing around the corner. Ochaco saw his eyes widen in surprise a second before he smashed his face into a floating potted plant. He skidded to a stop, wary of running into more levitating foliage, and Ochaco sprung her trap.

A large chunk of the objects she had touched had floated up towards the ceiling, propelled by her hasty pawing as she tried to get everything in place, and had remained floating there. Now, Ochaco returned there gravity all at once. Bakugo swore loudly as Ochaco's minefield came crashing down around him.

Ocaco let out a small whoop of victory as she saw Bakugo fall. She had ended up in a similar position several times when she was first learning to control her Quirk, so she knew from personal experience that it would take some time for him to wiggle free of the pile of office decor.

The stream of expletives coming from the pile abruptly cut off, and Ochaco had a moment to tense in anticipation of Bakugo trying something before the pile exploded, forcing her to duck into a nearby doorway to avoid being showered with debris.

She poked her head around the corner a moment later to see Bakugo standing in the center of a crater, panting heavily. He was smoking slightly, and completely covered in dust and soot, but his costume had come out fine. It had obviously been constructed with explosions in mind, which made sense. Ochaco was embarrassed enough by her skin-tight suit. She couldn't imagine having one that literally shredded itself in combat.

"Are you fucking done?" Bakugo growled, turning slightly to face her.

Ochaco took that moment to run away. Their first exchange had proven that she couldn't beat him in a direct fight, not alone. Her best chance was to continue with the hit-and-run tactics that had proven at least marginally effective. At the very least, she might be able to make it to Tsunotori before—

Her flight was cut short as Bakugo blasted through the wall of the office she was passing through and landed directly in front of her. Somehow, he'd managed to get ahead of her without making so much as a peep. Ochaco was a bit impressed that he'd managed to put his over-inflated ego aside for that long, though that feeling was overshadowed by the panic that shot through her at his emergence.

He lunged forward, and buried his fist in Ochaco's stomach in the same place as before. She gasped in pain, stumbling backwards to try and create some distance. Bakugo simply stepped forward to match her, landing a series of blows to her torso despite her best attempts to block.

In a desperate effort, Ochaco lashed out with a kick to Bakugo's legs, trying to knock him off balance. Another, more experienced, fighter might have been able to pull off the move. Unfortunately, Ochaco was unable to marshall her balance properly for such a kick, and Bakugo didn't even bother to block it. He simply lowered himself slightly and let the kick crash harmlessly into his side while he countered.

Off balance and over-extended, Ochaco was unable to do anything as Bakugo slammed a fist directly into her chin, where her helmet offered no protection, and her vision turned white.

* * *

Izuku had to look away as Uraraka dropped like a stone. Watching the battle had been difficult enough, but that was the final straw. He couldn't keep watching his friends hurt each other like that.

He wasn't the only one taken aback by the exchange on screen. Tension and concern were present on every face in the room. Even the stoic Todoroki seemed uneasy, though that might have simply been Izuku projecting his feelings onto the other boy.

"Bakugo, dude, that wasn't very manly," Kirishima said softly. In another room, it might have been a whisper, but in the silence that had fallen over the observation room when Uraraka was struck, his voice was clearly audible to everyone.

"A hero's battles are not always so cut and dry as they appear on the T.V.," All Might replied. His tone was soft, and his voice sounded as though it came from very far , his left hand drifted down to rest atop the scar on his torso, prompting Izuku to wonder once again how exactly that wound had occurred. "It is a lesson that every hero learns in time. Still, I had been hoping for a much more lighthearted exchange for your first day. My apologies to you all." He paused for a moment to bow slightly to the class.

"I think a change to the lesson is in order, once their match has been wrapped up. Instead we can—"

"Holy crap!" Kaminari shouted, shattering the morose atmosphere of the observation room in one fell swoop.

Izuku followed the blond's eyes, which were still firmly fixed on the screen at the front of the room and nearly fainted at what he saw.

Uraraka, through some force of will, had risen from the floor to stand in front of Katsuki once more. Her legs shook, her face was covered in sweat, and a small trail of blood ran down from the corner of her mouth. Despite all of that, though, her eyes were burning with a fire Izuku had no idea that she possessed. In that moment, he knew with utter surety that nothing short of total incapacitation would keep her from finishing the fight.

"Young Uraraka…" All Might whispered, the respect and admiration in his voice clear to everyone who heard it.

"Are… you... done?" she gasped. The strain in her voice overshadowed her mocking tone, but the intent was clear.

Izuku wasn't sure who started it, but someone started cheering, and a second later the observation room was filled with encouraging cries. They knew she couldn't hear them, of course, but her raw determination overrode all that and practically tore the cheers from them. Even Izuku found himself muttering encouragement under his breath. It felt like a betrayal of his friendship with Katsuki, but he was too caught up in the moment for it to stop him.

"You can do it," he said softly, his words completely drowned out by the rest of the class.

* * *

"Are… you... done?" she gasped, standing against all odds.

Katsuki could barely believe it. He had been sure that his last blow had put her down for the count. And yet, there she was. Battered and bloody, and yet still defiant. He'd never seen anything like it.

Except for her eyes. The color and shape might be different, but the fire that burned in them was something he would know anywhere. It was the same fire that burned in Izuku when he had defied every one of the extras who had tried to bring him down.

_You've gotta be shitting me,_ he thought to himself, shifting to a defensive stance involuntarily. He knew better than most that someone with eyes like that wouldn't be out of the fight until they were unconscious, and even then he still wouldn't entirely count them out.

The slight whistle of something moving rapidly towards him distracted Katsuki from his thoughts. He leapt backwards, using his explosions to propel himself further. A moment later, a pair of large yellow horns slammed into the space he had previously been standing.

He whipped his head around and saw Horns standing at the far end of the office. A new pair of horns were already pushing their way through her hair, which meant she wasn't going to be defenseless for very long. He raised his hands to attack, but before he could the horns buried in the floor ripped themselves free and flew past him to hang in the air by their owner.

"You okay 'Raka?" Horns called without taking her eyes off Katsuki.

"Tsunotori?" Round Face asked, confusion evident in her voice, "Weren't you... going to stay... with the bomb?"

"Bomb's safe!" Horns replied brightly. "Came to help you fight!"

"Came to help you lose, more like," Katsuki cut in, taking a moment to size his new opponent up. She acted like a ditz who couldn't string a sentence together to save her life, but Katsuki had already underestimated one opponent this match, and he was not going to do it again.

Seizing the initiative, Katsuki lowered his center of gravity slightly, then blasted forward in a flying kick. At best it would do serious damage, and even if it missed, it would serve as an effective gap closer.

Instead of dodging, Horns sent her namesake appendages flying towards him, forcing Katsuki to dodge mid-air with another pair of explosions. He slid to a stop several feet shy of his target as her horns flew past harmlessly. They would be coming back around in a moment, but that was more than enough time to take her down.

Leaping forward, Katsuki leveled his palm directly for the blonde, a grin tugging at his lips as he saw her eyes widen in fear. His palms tingled as the blast built to a crescendo and he prepared to send Horns flying.

Before he could strike, however, something slammed into his back and knocked him to the ground. His head slammed into the concrete, turning his vision white for a moment. He recovered himself quickly though, and tried to push off of the ground, but whatever had struck him was heavy enough to keep him pinned to the floor. Growling in frustration, he shifted position slightly and let off the strongest explosion that he could muster directly behind him.

The desk that was pinning him was blasted into splinters and he leapt to his feet. Horns stood with Round Face at the far end of the room. Round Face was still panting from the effort of hurling the desk at him, but she had already grabbed a chunk of rubble to throw. She was also slowly rebuilding the minefield that she had dropped on him before, one object at a time. The effort was rapidly turning her green, but she was still pushing through. Horns had finished regrowing her horns, and the first pair hovered next to her, ready to shoot forward at a moment's notice.

They weren't the only ones who could play the ranged game, though. Chunks of concrete from his entrance were plentiful, and Katsuki grabbed a fist size chunk from near his feet. Another quick blast, and it went shooting towards his opponents. They dove to either side and gave Katsuki the perfect opportunity to close the gap, which he took full advantage of.

He blasted Horns point blank, sending her flying backwards into the wall. She wasn't out of the fight permanently, but she was stunned. Her horns clattered to the ground, useless without her direction.

With half of the opposition out of the fight, Katsuki turned to face Round Face just in time to deflect the computer monitor she flung at him. A quick blast shattered it, and a follow up jab to the torso sent Round Face crashing to the ground. She coughed, curling around herself in pain as Katsuki stepped back.

_Shame _he thought to himself as he surveyed the room, _I was actually starting to enjoy my—_

The horn that slammed into the back of his head knocked him off balance and caused him to see stars. Normally he might have just shrugged such a thing off, but the repeated head trauma from this match was starting to build up. He shook his head, trying to chase the static from the corners of his vision, and turned to look at his American assailant.

She was slowly dragging herself to her feet as her costume smoked slightly. A large crack ran up the rightmost horn on her head, but Katsuki was fairly certain it was fixing itself as he watched.

Before he could attack her, Horns lowered her head and fired off a volley directly at his chest. Katsuki leapt to the side to avoid the attack, but something was wrong. He moved much faster than he'd intended, slamming into the wall with his shoulder when he'd only taken a slight jump.

The sound of someone trying desperately not to puke cued him in to what had happened. Round Face must have grabbed his leg while he was recovering from the horn attack, rendering him weightless.

The disconnection from gravity wouldn't prevent him from moving, since he could maneuver with his explosions, but it did make things more complicated. He would have to plan his movements out if he didn't want to risk slamming into the walls again.

"Not bad," he admitted, "but not quite good enough."

A single explosion sent him rocketing directly toward Horns, who tried her best to dodge out of the way. She wasn't fast enough, however, and Katsuki seized her upper arm in a vise-like grip. A series of explosions from his other hand allowed him to spin around her, then leverage his momentum to fling her across the room at Round Face like a human discus. The two girls crashed into each other, falling into a heap while Katsuki maneuvered himself into position across the room from them.

"The two of you," Katsuki said, leveling his arm at them, "are more irritating than I gave you credit for. Congrats, I guess. Now, here's your prize!"

The handle of the gauntlet slid back smoothly to reveal the firing pin. The only real downside to the design was that Katsuki wasn't able to prime and fire the blast in a single motion, but Katsuki didn't really care. The upside was that his opponents had just enough time to realize something big was coming. They frantically attempted to disentangle themselves, but it was far too little, far too late.

He was halfway through pulling the pin when All Might's voice boomed throughout the building. "The Hero team has successfully defused the bomb! Congratulations to the winners!

"What the fuck?" Katsuki said, finger never leaving the pin.

"Found the bomb, no thanks to you" a familiar voice chimed in his ear, coming through the earpiece perfectly clearly. "I mean, you were an excellent distraction, but it's easy to avoid people if you can hear them coming. I'd say I could have won this single-handedly, but I don't want to sound like an arrogant ass. See you back in the observation room, _partner_." With that, Jirou's comm went dead.

"I… You… Son of a bitch!" Katsuki swore, slamming his fist into the wall.

Anger burned deep in his stomach, mixing with the bitter taste of disappointment in his mouth. He had been so close to showing them all what he could do, why they should respect him, why he was better than them. And then it had all been snatched away, leaving him looking like a fool. While he'd been fighting, Ears had been sneaking around, stabbing him and his opponents in the back at the same time.

And yet, she occupied only a small section of his attention. The rest was fixed on the damned girl picking herself up off the floor across from him.

It seemed like she was dead set on challenging him in every conceivable venue. First she latched onto Izuku with record speed, which was saying something given Izuku's naive tendencies, and then she had refused to back down when he had come after her on the platform. Not to mention the fact that she had apparently changed Izuku's views on his old nickname, something Katsuki hadn't been able to do with years of discussion.

And then there was that look. She shouldn't have had that look in her eyes. That was reserved for people Katsuki could respect, people he could even admire to an extent. It shouldn't have been in the eyes of some damned backstabber who had nothing better to do than try and hurt him and Izuku like so many had tried to do before her.

As he watched Round Face slowly climb to her feet, Katsuki resolved that he would get to the bottom of this, one way or another.

* * *

Ochaco sighed as she stripped off the last of her costume. The fabric was torn in several places, and what was still intact was caked in a combination of dust, sweat and blood. Even the helmet was damaged, a long crack running along the visor from when she had fallen to the ground. She hated the idea of getting rid of the costume so soon after receiving it, but even she had to admit that her suit had been thoroughly trashed.

The only upside to the whole affair was that now there was the possibility of redesigning her costume a little bit. She liked how much of her space theme had been translated from her designs to the finished product. She just wished that it hadn't been so skin tight.

Tsunotori, who was also changing out of her battle damaged costume a few lockers over, turned to face Ochaco at the sigh. The two of them had been given a few minutes to change and get checked over by the nursing robots before they joined the rest of the class for a debrief. Apparently, All Might was using the time to select a new area for the rest of the lesson. The building that they had been using was somewhat structurally compromised thanks to Bakugo's explosions, and All Might had practically jumped at the chance to move things to a different local. Jirou and Bakugo had also been given the option to change, but both had decided to remain in costume for the rest of the lesson.

"Sorry 'Raka," Tsunotori said morosely, the first words she had said since the end of the match, "I messed up big."

Ochaco cocked her head in confusion. Had that been why her partner had been so silent?

"Tsunotori, you didn't mess up. You were just trying to help me out. I was the one who thought I could hold Bakugo off by myself. If we had stuck together like you wanted to, we might have had a chance."

"Maybe," Tsunotori replied with a wan smile, "Bakugo is strong though."

"Yeah," Ochaco agreed. "We kinda drew the short straw."

"But," Tsunotori said, perking up slightly, "that just means we have to do better next time."

She was right. Today was only the first day of their heroics class. They would have plenty of time during the coming year to grow and improve. And then the next time they were in a fight like that, they could show what they were really made of.

"You're right. Thanks, Tsunotori."

"Welcome!" she replied brightly. "But, uhm, can you call me Pony? Still not used to hearing my last name first."

Ochaco smiled. It was a bit unorthodox, and it might take a little getting used to on her part, but she was happy to help the other girl out. She couldn't imagine how hard it would be to move to another country with such a different culture, especially alone. Tsuno—Pony really was brave, even if she sometimes seemed a bit on the meek side.

"Of course Pony. I'm happy to help a friend out."

She smiled at that, and wrapped Ochaco in a tight hug. The blonde girl was definitely not shy in her hugs, actually lifting her off the ground slightly in her enthusiasm.

The happy mood lasted right up until Ochaco exited the changing room to find a glowering Bakugo waiting for her across the hall.

"What the hell is your deal?" Katsuki asked, stepping towards Ochaco.

"My deal?" Ochaco replied, matching him. The logical part of her mind was screaming that provoking him like this was a bad idea, but her parents hadn't raised a quitter, and they definitely hadn't raised someone who would let a bully have his way. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I _mean_," Bakugo said, "What the hell are you hoping to get, hanging around Izuku? Because whatever it is, I guarantee you aren't going to get it."

"Bakugo, we're friends!" Ochaco said in exasperation, "That's the big secret! I think he's nice and I enjoy spending time with him. I was even willing to put up with your surly attitude since he's such a good friend. But you don't seem to care about that. You've been nothing but a jerk, ignoring his feelings when he's trying to tell you what he wants. So maybe I'm not the one who's clinging to him while pretending to be his friend!"

She hadn't meant to say all of that, but once she had started speaking, her feelings had just tumbled out. Maybe it was because Izuku had already become a dear friend to her in the short time she had known him, maybe it was because she found Bakugo's attitude grating, or maybe it was just because the situation brought up bad memories from her middle school days. Whatever the reason, Ochaco just couldn't watch and wait to see if the situation resolved itself.

She couldn't be sure, but she could swear Bakugo actually flinched at her words. It was only for a moment though, and a second later, he was his usual irritated self.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," he spat. "I've been the only one he could talk to, his only friend since we were kids. He—" his voice caught for a moment, "We don't need you butting in."

"Well, too bad," she replied, "Izuku is my friend, and I'm his. That's not changing anytime soon. I could even be your friend, if you'd stop being so angry with everyone. But if you keep this up, you're just going to end up hurting everyone involved."

Silence fell as Bakugo stared at her, his gaze stuck somewhere between disbelief and anger. As the gears in his head turned, Ochaco simply waited for his response. She had made her opinions clear, and now it was up to Bakugo to meet her halfway.

"Fine," he said, finally breaking the silence, "I'll play along. Not for you, but for him. And if you ever hurt him, or make him feel like he's worthless, then I'll blow you into so many pieces that not even Recovery Girl will be able to put you back together."

Ochaco sighed. It was far from a perfect situation, but it was probably the best that she was going to get. There was too much of a gap to be bridged for them to truly get along, especially in so short a time. She couldn't see herself actually becoming friends with someone who reminded her so much of every bully she'd ever encountered.

For Izuku though, she would make the effort.

"Okay then. Truce."

"Truce," Bakugo echoed. With that, he turned on his heel and walked away without looking back.

Ochaco waited until he was well ahead of her before following. Their argument might have been put to rest, but her emotions were still running high enough that she didn't want to walk with him.

Instead, she turned her mind to what was to come. Her match might have been completed, but the day was far from over. Still, that wasn't such a bad thing. Now she had the opportunity to cheer for her friends, just as she was sure they had been cheering for her.

That thought brought a smile to her face, and with her attitude somewhat lifted, Ochaco set off for the observation room and the rest of the class. The worst was behind her, and the rest of the day had nowhere to go but up.

* * *

Happy New Year to you all!

First, let me apologize for how long this chapter has taken me. I don't really have a good excuse, the bulk was finished several weeks ago, but the finishing details proved to be rather tricky for no apparent reason. I'd like to think the next one will come out a little sooner, but I would advise preparing for another long wait.

Second, I had a comment a while back asking whether this fic would end up being Kacchako, and wanted to address the question officially, rather than just in the comments. They aren't going to end up together. I'm not a big fan of the pairing in general, mostly because I don't see them working out, in cannon or otherwise. No hate to the people who do ship it, you do you, but its not really my cup of tea. As for in this fic, their relations will improve over time, but are going to be rather frosty for a while.

Finally, as we start in on 2020, I wanted to thank each and every person who has read this story. This started as a random idea that refused to go away, but it quickly grew into my baby. I've got some exciting ideas for this story, and I hope you all enjoy them. Thank you once again, and I hope 2020 is excellent for you!

P.S. If you want to chat, but don't feel like leaving a comment, feel free to hit me up on Tumblr, where my username is EvilMuffinLord as well


	7. Broccoli on the Run

**New cover art to match the theme for this fic better! By justanotherbnhalover on Tumblr. Go check their stuff out!**

**Alternate chapter title: Battle Trial Part 2- Battle Tendency**

* * *

"My apologies for the delay, students," All Might said, addressing the class, "but we are finally ready to resume your class."

Katsuki, Uraraka, and Tsunatori had returned a few minutes ago, the latter two having shed their costumes in favor of the gym uniforms the school had provided for them. A quick visit from Recovery Girl, who had shot All Might a withering look, ensured that they were all in perfect health, if a little worn out from the exchange.

To Izuku's immense relief, Katsuki and Uraraka had walked over to stand on either side of him when they returned from the lockers. They still weren't looking at each other, but Izuku could tell that some of the tension between the two had bled away. His mother had been right after all. Katsuki had just needed to vent some of his frustrations, and combat had been the perfect way to do it.

"Does this mean we're not getting out of class till late?" Ashido asked, not bothering to raise her hand.

All Might smiled jovially, "No need to worry, young Ashido. We made allowances for a few delays. You will make your train with time to spare."

She chuckled at his statement, causing All Might to frown in confusion before continuing. "Ahem. Moving on. Now that the first fight has been completed, it's time for analysis! After all, you learn as much from your failures as your successes! Or so I'm told."

Izuku, along with the rest of the class, winced at the unintentional hubris. All Might's reputation for being unbeatable was well deserved, but taken the wrong way, his statement could be seen as an insult towards the lower ranked heroes. Izuku knew his mentor hadn't meant it that way, and he dearly hoped that if any of the UA staff had heard it they wouldn't take it as one either.

"Why don't we start with overall impressions? Who would like to go first?"

Izuku was tempted for a moment. As hard as it had been to watch Katsuki and Uraraka battle, there had been several moments that had sent his inner hero nerd into a Quirk analyzing frenzy. From a technical standpoint, it had been an amazing bout. Even Jirou, who hadn't done any fighting, had demonstrated some impressive skills. He wondered just how sensitive her hearing really was and whether she could selectively mute sounds to block out vibrations from traffic or other urban noise pollution.

Before he could do more than contemplate volunteering, Yaoyorozu's hand shot into the air.

"Quite frankly, sir, it was a complete disaster."

You could have heard a pin drop in the stunned silence that followed her words. Even All Might seemed taken aback by the statement. Unfortunately, she took this as leave to continue.

"There was no team cohesion from either side. Both Bakugou and Uraraka immediately broke away from their partners to brawl, ignoring the objective of this match entirely. Tsunatori was only slightly better. She at least had the sense to hide the bomb, though her efforts were ultimately fruitless. Jirou was the only one who kept the objective in mind the entire time, though her infiltration would have been much more effective if she had coordinated with her partner beforehand."

Indignant grumbles came from Jirou, Uraraka, and Tsunatori, while Katsuki actually growled in frustration. None of them were happy with the feedback, and they might have even voiced their opinions if All Might hadn't jumped in to head them off.

"A, uh, very thorough analysis, young Yaoyorozu. Excellent work. However, you missed a few things. First, the strategy to divide and conquer threats is a tried-and-true staple of heroism, especially when fighting a stronger opponent. Second, I believe young Uraraka and young Tsunotori came much closer to defeating their opponent than you realize. Third…" he trailed off as he obviously tried to think of a good point to finish with. "Third, I believe we should give your classmates a round of applause for showing us a rather explosive first match."

There was a polite smattering of applause, though it was much more muted than it would have been before Yaoyorozu's comments.

For her part, Yaoyorozu seemed to realize she had made a social error and looked quite embarrassed. Izuku's heart went out to her. She had looked eager when raising her hand to answer and had obviously hoped to make a good impression on their teacher. Now, her shoulders were hunched and she had shrunk in on herself. At least her partner, Aoyama, seemed to be doing his best to comfort her, though Izuku wasn't quite sure how cheese was supposed to make you feel better.

"Thanks to all of the participants of our first match," All Might said, drawing the class's attention back to him, "You certainly gave it your all. Now, however, it is time to give the rest of you a chance to shine! That said, there will be a slight change to the matches going forward."

He pulled out a small set of notecards from his belt and held them up, his eyes dancing across the cards as he read.

"The objective of this exercise is to locate a mock explosive device hidden somewhere in the city. The team playing the villains will be allowed to move or disguise the device as they see fit while the hero team will need to locate and disarm the device by touching it. Your goal is to display and expand your information gathering prowess, as well as your teamwork skills. Stop reading here."

He coughed suddenly, trying to cover for the mistake while the class chuckled awkwardly.

"As you can see," the hero said, forging ahead as best he could, "The rules are mostly the same as they were from the first match. The change in conditions is simply to help focus your attention in a less… destructive manner."

Katsuki snorted, but made no comment.

"Now, are there any questions, or are you all ready to go on?" All Might asked, glancing around the observation room. Not a single hand raised, and the man seemed to relax a little. "Very well then. Let's give the rest of the matches just as much energy as the first. Say it with me now! Plus Ultra!"

"Plus Ultra!"

* * *

The second match of the day pitted Sero and Koda as heroes against Iida and Hagakure as villains. The latter two took their roles to heart, putting on their best villain voices as they waited for the heroes to enter the alleyway where they had stashed their bomb. In comparison with the first match, the second was rather tame. There weren't any grudge matches or spilt blood, and the actual battle was over rather quickly. Koda managed to locate a small park in the cityscape and recruit its squirrel population to his cause. They swarmed Iida, but were unable to find any gaps in his armor, and were quickly blown off when Iida dashed around at top speed. Iida then quickly subdued the quiet boy, and turned his attention to Sero. Sero had done an admirable job holding off Hagakure, though he couldn't quite manage to capture the nimble girl, but was ultimately overwhelmed when Iida joined the battle as well.

In the aftermath, All Might praised the heroes for using inventive tactics, as well as the villains for keeping in character the whole time. For most of the class, it was a relief to see that these matches didn't have to be quite as intense as the first had been.

The third match, which set Kirishima and Shoji as villains against Sato and Todoroki as heroes, lasted even less time. Kirishima attempted to charge the hero team while Shoji snuck around behind them, trying to trap them in a pincer movement. In response, Todoroki simply froze the ground around him, catching both his opponents and his partner in the same attack.

Everyone in the viewing room shivered at the image as Todoroki slowly began to thaw his classmates out, partially from the power the heterochromatic boy had just casually thrown around, and partially in empathy for the three who had been frozen in place.

Positioned behind Asui as he was, Izuku noticed that her response to the cold had been particularly violent. Her entire body shuddered, even though the room was still relatively warm. Noticing this, Ashido wrapped an arm around her partner's shoulders and gave her a comforting squeeze.

Izuku, meanwhile, added another note to his hero notebook. Her reaction was far greater than anyone else in the class, which meant it was probably related to her Quirk. He wondered just how similar to a frog her Quirk actually made her. If it made her endothermic, then that would explain her reaction, though her costume didn't seem to offer any sort of protection from the cold, and he was fairly certain having a lower body temperature would require different digestive bacteria, which would mean she—

His train of thought was cut off by a sharp elbow to the stomach from Katsuki.

"Oi! Quit it with the mumbling and start walking! You're up next."

Izuku looked around to find most of the class staring at him in amusement. Asui, Ashido, and Mineta were all waiting by the exit to the observation room. Ashido sported an amused smile as she waved at him, though the other two looked far less pleased. Asui's face was almost clinically neutral, while Mineta looked thoroughly annoyed as he tapped his foot on the ground.

Izuku flushed with embarrassment and hurried to join them, but was stopped halfway there as Katsuki called out to him yet again.

"Don't you even think about losing, ya damn nerd. If you do, we're gonna have another sparring session this weekend, and I won't be holding back this time."

Izuku paled at the thought. Their previous sparring sessions had all left him battered and bruised. He could only imagine how terrifying it would be if Katsuki were properly motivated.

"I'll, uh, do my best!"

"Damn well better!"

* * *

"Did you really need to threaten him?" Round Face asked, stepping up beside Katsuki while they waited for Izuku's match to start.

He snorted derisively. "That wasn't a threat. Trust me, if I ever threaten someone, they know it. But yeah, I fucking did need to. Remember, I've known him since we were kids. Shit like this freaks him out, and he's just gonna focus on the one thing that will make him less nervous. Problem is, he gets so into thinking about Quirks that he stops paying attention to anything around him. We were walking home once, with him spitballing ideas about some new hero when some asshat tried to mug us. Izuku didn't even notice that the guy was holding a knife. Just apologized to the guy and kept walking. I don't know who was more surprised, me or the mugger."

She snickered. "Did Deku really do that?"

Her casual use of the name sent a spike of reflexive anger shooting through him. His palms flexed, and sparked unconsciously, drawing the eyes of half the room to him.

"The fuck are you all looking at?" he snapped, sending most of their heads whipping right back around, to his amusement.

One of the few who didn't turn away was Horns. Instead, she walked over to stand between Katuski and Round Face, replacing Izuku as the barrier between the two. Despite standing next to the person who had knocked her half-senseless so recently, the American showed almost no signs of awkwardness or hesitation.

"Who wins?" Horns asked, gesturing toward the screens that were currently showing both teams preparing for the coming match. Izuku and his partner were in the middle of some kind of debate while Raccoon Eyes and her partner inspected the area around their faux bomb.

Round Face put a finger to her lips and frowned in concentration for a few seconds before finally responding.

"Hmmm. Probably Ashido and Asui. Deku is strong, but he always hurts himself when he uses his Quirk. Plus, I can't see him using it to actually attack someone if there's a risk they could get injured, and I don't see Mineta winning a two versus one."

"You're so wrong it's almost funny," Katsuki cut in.

"You think Midoriya wins?" Horns asked, cocking her head to get a better look at him.

"I think Izuku trained with me for the entire summer, and he's forgotten more about Quirks than the two of you will ever know. Those two are so far outclassed that I'll be amazed if this match lasts longer than ten minutes."

"You forgot to include Mineta in that," Round Face pointed out.

"I didn't forget shit. The little gremlin can die in a hole for all I care. In fact, the quicker he gets taken out the better. Then the rest of you will understand why you shouldn't be looking down on Izuku." He gazed pointedly at Round Face as he finished.

Instead of looking intimidated or offended, she simply looked amused. "You really care about him, huh?" she said, the smile on her face setting his teeth on edge.

"No shit. He's the only other one in here that actually stands a chance of being a hero."

"Ah!" Horns said, clapping her hands in realization, "I see! You are 'tsundere!'"

There was an audible crack as the last of Katsuki's patience snapped. "I WILL FUCKING END YOU, YOU ALL-AMERICAN REJECT!"

"Young Bakugou, please keep it down," All Might said, silencing the explosive blond before he could say anything else. "The next match is about to begin."

There weren't a lot of things that could have changed Katsuki's focus that quickly, but the news of the impending fight did just that. He tuned the entire room out, and waited to see what harebrained scheme Izuku would cook up.

* * *

"What do you mean you can't use it?" Mineta cried in dismay.

"I-I-I'm sorry," Izuku stammered, "I'm not that good with my Quirk, and if I tried something like that I could seriously hurt them."

"You can't, like, punch less hard or something?"

"N-Not really," he replied, scratching the back of his head, "One for—er Super Power is really strong. My body isn't strong enough to handle its full force yet. I tried during the summer with Kacchan, but…"

Their experiment had led to an extremely awkward visit to the nearest clinic to get Izuku patched up. The doctor had been extremely dubious about how Izuku had managed to do so much damage to his arm by himself. It was only when they had mentioned that they had both been accepted to UA that the doctor had relented and healed Izuku. His Quirk hadn't been nearly as potent as Recovery Girl's, and Izuku had needed to wear a sling for multiple days, and make a second visit to the clinic before he had been completely fixed. After that they had decided that experiments with Izuku's Quirk were best left for when they were actually at UA.

"Man, this sucks," Mineta whined, "This was supposed to be an easy match against two hotties. Instead I'm stuck with the only guy who can't use his Quirk, so I have to beat them both myself. This is _not_ what I meant when I said I wanted to get double teamed!"

Izuku wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but he decided not to address it. Instead, he thought long and hard about what they could do. Mineta wasn't wrong. With Izuku unable to use his Quirk without hurting himself or his classmates, they were at a severe disadvantage. They had very little in the way of offense, while their opponents had quite a bit of versatility on their side. If they were going to win, they needed to come up with a strategy.

"Mineta, what exactly does your Quirk do? I know the balls on your head detach, and that you can bounce off of them, but is that it?"

The smaller boy shook his head, then detached one of the purple spheres from his head. A replacement immediately grew in its place, surprising Izuku with the speed of its growth. Mineta then gave the sphere he had plucked off his scalp a gentle toss towards a nearby wall. The second the sphere touched the wall it stopped short, firmly stuck in place.

"They stick to anything that's not me," Mineta explained, "They come off eventually, and I can remove them, but they stay stuck until then."

"What about each other?"

Mineta shrugged, then tossed a second sphere at the first. This one also stuck fast, though the chain of spheres drooped slightly with nothing to support them. "Yeah, why?"

"I have an idea. I think if she sees me, Ashido will try to chase me down. Then we can lure her into a trap using your balls."

"I like the sound of that," Mineta said, wiggling his eyebrows for some reason.

"We'll need to find them first, but I have an idea for that as well. Are there any ponds on that map?"

After a quick glance, Mineta nodded. "There's a pond in the park four blocks over."

"Then that's where they'll be. Asui will want to be somewhere near water, to make the best use of her Quirk, and Ashido will go along with it since her Quirk can be used anywhere. They'll have hidden the bomb in the park, or maybe in the pond, so we have to go through Asui to get to it. Hopefully she'll stay behind after we lure Ashido away, so we won't have to try and fight both of them at once. Then, we'll have to come up with a way to combat her, since neither of us are that strong in water… oh! Is it a problem if your balls get wet?"

"No. I've clogged up the bathtub before, so they're just as sticky in water."

Midoriya nodded once, then dove back into his muttering as he worked through the possibilities of their battle. There were so many ways that even just the three Quirks in use could interact and bounce off each other that it was staggering. He was used to thinking through hero battles, but only in the abstract. Somehow the knowledge that this was real gave every idea a new weight, making him double- and triple-check every thought. If he screwed something up, someone might actually get hurt.

"Students!" All Might's voice boomed throughout the mock city that had been silent except for Izuku's muttering, "You may begin!"

Izuku instantly felt his stomach drop. He wasn't anywhere near done planning yet! There were still too many variables he hadn't accounted for! What if Ashido managed to free herself from their trap before they could get the capture tape on her? What if Mineta's balls weren't as sticky in water as he thought? What if Asui had some other aspect to her Quirk that he hadn't figured out?

"Midoriya! Are we doing this, or what?" Mineta asked, gently jostling his leg.

Izuku took a long, slow breath to calm his nerves. It didn't help nearly as much as he thought it would. Then, so faintly he almost missed it, Izuku heard a bang in the distance. It was probably just a trash can falling over, but it caused Izuku to picture Katsuki shouting angrily at him to get a move on.

A small smile crossed Izuku's lips as he rose to his feet. Even when he was stuck in the viewing room, Katsuki was still supporting him, albeit in his usual, grouchy fashion.

"Yeah," he replied, his resolve set. "We can do this!"

* * *

"Whoa! They're headed right towards the bomb!" Sparky exclaimed, surprise evident in his voice. "I thought for sure they'd have to look around a bit before they found it. Think they got lucky?"

"Unlikely," High Class replied. "Their path is too linear to be a search pattern, and they both seem rather sure of where they are going. Perhaps one of them possesses a Quirk that allows them to locate their opponents?"

"Deku's Quirk gives him super strength," Round Face said, "And I'm pretty sure Mineta's has to do with the balls on his head. Nothing that would let them find Ashido and Asui."

"It's not a Quirk. It's logic," Katsuki snapped, tired of the endless chatter. They hadn't even gotten to the interesting shit, and half the class seemed bamboozled already. He couldn't imagine how frustrating it was going to be when things really got started.

"Care to explain, young Bakugou?" All Might asked, turning to smile at the explosive blond.

Katsuki grit his teeth before continuing. He somehow felt less sure of himself explaining things to the rest of the extras now that he knew All Might was actually listening in on their conversation. If he were a little more introspective, he might have realized he didn't want to screw up in front of someone who he respected.

"Croaker is a frog. She likes water, and probably feels safest in a puddle or something. So, they looked for the biggest puddle around and hid the bomb there. Izuku knew that they'd do something like that, so he knows about where they are. Now it's just a matter of finding where Croaker and Raccoon Eyes are hiding and beating them up."

"That seems like quite the leap in logic," Four Eyes cut in, "They could have just as easily chosen a battlefield that would favor Ashido's Quirk instead."

"Raccoon Eyes might be a happy-go-lucky idiot, but her Quirk is good in a lot of places. If you try and punch her, she can counter with acid, and if you stay at range she can just chuck some at you. I'd still kick her ass in less time than it takes to put on my gauntlets, but someone like you would probably get your ass handed to you."

Four Eyes spluttered in surprise and frustration, but All Might cut him off before he could reply.

"Quite the excellent analysis, young Bakugou! I dare say you might give young Yaoyorozu a run for her money!"

"You're damn right I would. But I wasn't analyzing shit. I was just quoting."

"Quoting?" the hero asked in confusion.

"First day after class, Izuku showed me his notebook. Took me forever to read his handwriting, but all of the shit I just told you came straight out of it. And he had a page done for each of you after just one day. That's why he's gonna hand those two their asses. Anything they can come up with, I guarantee he's already analyzed and come up with a counter for."

"Wait, he has a page for all of us?" Round Face asked in surprise.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, then pointed at her. "You sleep with gloves so you don't accidentally float your pillow away, you have basically no fear of heights, every time you put on weight you feel like you can lift more with your Quirk, and if I dunked you in a pool of water, you wouldn't have any trouble figuring out which way is up."

He swung his eyes around the room, searching for a new victim, while Round Face flushed in embarrassment at his comments.

"High Class," Katsuki continued as his eyes landed on the girl who looked like she suddenly wished she was several inches shorter, "you store fat super efficiently, so you're actually much heavier than you look, and your idea of a full meal probably looks like a feast to most people. You also find puzzles easy, since you can picture the whole thing in your head without having to touch the pieces."

The girl in question turned crimson before hurriedly turning away from Katsuki. Ears, who was standing next to High Class, leveled a death glare at him, but he ignored the look. Let them get pissed. Katsuki didn't care about their opinions, and it made sure that they would never forget this moment, or what Izuku could really do. By the end of the day, there wouldn't be a single person in the class who would be able to think of Izuku as "lesser". Not if Katsuki had anything to say about it.

"Bird Brain is weaker in the sunshine, Soy Sauce has trouble putting his arms out straight, Ears prefers low-pitched shit. Do I need to go on, or have you got it through your thick skulls yet?"

The only response to his question was an awkward silence and some shuffling, which made Katsuki smile in triumph.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, you bunch of slackers. While you were goofing off or trying to impress each other, he was putting in the work to be better than all of you put together. So sit back, shut up, and watch him hand those two their pathetic asses."

There was more grumbling about his tone, and an admonishment from All Might about being a good sportsman, but after a few moments, everyone in the viewing room turned to silently watch Izuku and his partner lay a purple ball-covered rope across one of the alleyways near the park.

The viewing room grew so quiet, in fact, that Katsuki could hear Round Face mutter "Dick" under her breath as she turned back to the screen.

* * *

As he approached the edges of the park, Izuku did his best to swallow his nerves. Somewhere among the numerous trees and overgrown shrubbery, Ashido and Asui… no, a pair of villains were waiting to ambush him.

Years of practice traveling through the woods to the Lair took over as Izuku stepped off the main path. He stepped deftly around numerous stray branches that threatened to catch on his uniform, as well as the myriad of dry twigs and leaves that covered the ground. It was slow going, but Izuku managed to traverse the distance relatively silently.

He paused to catch his breath and center himself when the pond at the center of the park came into view. The time limit for their matches had been extended to thirty minutes, since the trial was taking place in a larger area. Even still, Izuku was feeling the time crunch. More than a quarter of the time had already elapsed, and they hadn't even seen their opponents.

Setting their trap up had taken more time than Izuku had expected. Getting the sticky spheres into place without touching them or getting them stuck on something unintentionally was harder than it had seemed at first. They'd gotten it ready after some trial and error, but it still left Izuku feeling anxious.

He craned his neck, trying to catch a glimpse of his opponents, or of the bomb. Nothing was visible, though there were some suspicious bubbles towards the center of the pond that Izuku wanted to investigate.

The strange thing was that he hadn't come across any signs of Ashido. She was talkative, had a hard time sitting still in class, and her pink skin should have stood out extremely well in the foliage. He had expected to come across her patrolling the park, or to have at least caught sight of her by this point.

He was jolted from his thoughts by a hissing sound coming from just beside him. He glanced towards it to find a stray leaf quickly being dissolved by a droplet of potent acid.

Instantly his senses jumped to alert, and he scanned the area, looking for the telltale flash of pink that would tell him where his opponent was. It was only when a second droplet fell inches from his nose that he realized why he couldn't spot her.

He craned his neck upward to find Ashido squatting in the tree above him. She was holding her hands in front of her face with the fingers extended in a crude imitation of fangs, the tips dripping acid while she smiled mischievously.

The second their eyes met, Ashido dropped the ridiculous pose and swung into action. She gripped the branch she had been squatting on and used it to launch herself forward at Izuku in a powerful kick.

He jumped backward as best he could, nearly tripping on an exposed root in the process. The kick wasn't quite as fast as one of Katsuki's rocket-powered ones, but it was dangerous enough that he didn't want to risk blocking it. He dropped into a battle stance, ready to deflect the next attack, only to be caught off balance when no follow up came.

Ashido was far too busy laughing over what had just happened.

"You know, I was kind of disappointed to get stuck on the villain team, but that made it completely worth it! Oh man, you should have seen your face, it was straight out of a horror movie!"

She dissolved into another fit of giggles, leaving Izuku feeling a bit embarrassed. Sure, he'd been surprised to see her in the tree, but he didn't think he'd made that funny of a face. He hoped none of the cameras had been able to see him.

"How did you know where I'd be?" Izuku asked. Their entire plan hinged on catching Ashido unawares. If she had some way to detect her opponents, then there was nothing he could do.

"I didn't!" she chirped, "Total coincidence. You have no idea how hard it was not to laugh myself out of the tree when I saw you stop right under me."

Izuku allowed himself to relax slightly. Their plan was safe. All he had to do now was lure her into the right place and hope Asui chose to remain with the bomb.

"I guess the fun's over though," she said with a sigh, sliding into a battle stance, "Sorry for this, Midori. I'll buy you a drink later to make up for it though!"

He dropped low as well, ready to make a break for it. He just needed to distract her for a moment, to give himself a head start. He racked his brain for a moment before inspiration struck.

During their sparring sessions, Katsuki used every trick in the book to distract Izuku, from insults and vulgar language to faking a call from his mother. He'd said it was to train Izuku to resist distractions, but had seemed to take a sadistic glee in punishing any gaps in focus on Izuku's part. In the end, Izuku hadn't learned to resist distractions during a fight, but he had picked up quite the bag of dirty tricks of his own.

"Nice job, Mineta!" Izuku said, shifting his gaze to a point just behind Ashido's back.

Her eyes widened in surprise and she spun around, ready to defend herself from the surprise double team. That combined with the surprise of finding no one there bought Izuku more than enough time to disengage.

He dashed for all that he was worth, leaving quite the obvious trail for Ashido to follow as he did.

"Midoriiiiii! Get back here!" she called, dashing after him. She was fast, but the uneven ground kept her from using the acid slide technique she had shown on the first day and let Izuku easily keep his distance.

Then they exited the park, and the equation changed. Ashido didn't lose a step as she exited the park and transitioned to her acid skating, much to Izuku's dismay. She also picked up a significant amount of speed in the process, putting her dangerously close to Izuku. He was fairly certain that she wouldn't use her acid on him for fear of hurting him, but her proximity was still concerning.

He took the corner into a nearby alleyway as fast as he dared. His shoes scrabbled for purchase on the smooth pavement, and he nearly lost his balance in the attempt. Thankfully he didn't fall, and he didn't lose too much time.

Once he had cleared the corner, he risked a glance behind him to check on Ashido's progress and was dismayed by what he saw. Instead of a graceless scramble, she took the corner in one smooth slide, kicking off the wall to preserve her momentum. It was an elegant maneuver, and one that ate significantly at the lead that Izuku had established.

Turning his head forward once more, Izuku laid on as much speed as he could, channeling every lesson that he had learned in his training with All Might. His legs pumped furiously and his breath tore at his chest, but he moved faster than he ever had before.

The final corner was even sharper than the rest, and Izuku couldn't quite manage it. He slammed into the wall at full speed, bouncing off of it with a whoosh of air. He stumbled back, gasping for breath, then spun to face the oncoming Ashido. He was in no condition to keep running, despite being only a few dozen feet from the trap. He needed to stall for time while he regained enough wind to make it the rest of the way.

Ashido came barreling towards him like an acid powered freight train. The smile on her face hadn't faded one bit during the chase, and it remained in place right up until her shoulder crashed into Izuku.

He blocked the blow as best he could, but the force still sent him skidding backwards. It wasn't quite as powerful as one of Katsuki's explosion enhanced kicks, but it was clear Ashido was taking this seriously.

"You're pretty fast Midori," she said, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow. The chase hadn't winded her as much as Izuku, but it had obviously put at least a small dent in her stamina.

"Thanks. You… too," Izuku managed to wheeze out.

She dipped her head graciously at the compliment before continuing. "Tell you what, if you put that capture tape on yourself, you can sit here and catch your breath while I go find your partner."

He shook his head. "Not… gonna happen."

She shrugged, not appearing surprised in the least. "Didn't think so, but it was worth a shot."

She lunged forward, keeping her body low to the ground while she closed the distance so he couldn't get any attacks off. Then, just before she entered arm's reach, she slammed her hands to the ground and spun herself around like a top. Her feet came dangerously close to knocking Izuku's out from under him, and the droplets of acid that sprayed out of her shoes stung his skin wherever they landed.

Izuku leapt out of range easily enough, but struggled to find a way to counterattack while Ashido kept spinning. The globs of acid she was spraying from her shoes weren't exactly dangerous, but if they got in his eyes or mouth he wouldn't be able to keep fighting. Her legs were a danger as well. She was spinning at a high enough speed that an unguarded blow from her boots would hurt. He was tempted to try running again, but his breath hadn't recovered nearly enough for even the short sprint that leading her into their trap would require.

Thankfully, she couldn't keep the maneuver up forever. After less than a minute, her spinning slowed down and she popped back to her feet in one smooth motion.

"Pretty cool, huh?" she said happily. "I call it "Acid Top!"

"Very cool," Izuku agreed.

Before she could say anything else, he darted forward and sent a quick jab toward her stomach. It wouldn't be enough to take her out of the battle entirely, but it would buy him enough time to either make it to the trap, or to even capture her himself.

She darted out of the way of the blow, though her eyes widened as she did so. She clearly hadn't been expecting him to take such an aggressive stance. He followed it up with a second punch, this time aimed at her shoulder. In exchange, Ashido lashed out with a kick towards his side, forcing him to dodge to the side and throwing off his aim.

His blow went wide, and it left him off balance as Ashido came at him again. He blocked the punch she threw almost instinctively, falling into the rhythm of combat. He turned smoothly to block the next blow, a right hook to his side, only to find nothing there. Instead, a sharp pain blossomed in the back of his head as Ashido's elbow slammed into it.

Stars danced in his eyes as he went stumbling forward. His vision cleared quickly enough thanks to his high pain tolerance, a trait that would serve him extremely well in the years to come, but he was still off balance for several seconds.

Thankfully, Ashido didn't press her advantage. Instead, she kept her distance, a look of concern replacing the smile she had worn for the entire battle. It seemed like the battle between Katsuki and Uraraka had her feeling a little more skittish about fighting her friend than she had let on.

Her hesitation gave him a moment to recover, and to think about what had just happened. It took a moment of silently running over the battle in his head to realize what he had done.

He had tried to block a blow to the side because that's what Katsuki would have done. He would have pressed his advantage relentlessly until Izuku either yielded or was unable to move, whichever came first. The many hours of sparring that Izuku had logged with the explosive blond were both saving him and making him vulnerable, since he would have to fight both his opponent and his instincts.

He risked a glance down the alleyway and at the line of trash cans at the far end. It wasn't an exceptionally long run, but it would be taxing in his current state. Still, remaining in this fight would probably be even worse.

His gaze returned to Ashido, who had caught the look. She shook her head. "Don't you dare…"

He took off before she could finish her threat, making it to the end of the alley and clearing the line of cans in one smooth leap. Ashido moaned in annoyance, then pelted after him.

"Midori, get back here!" she called, preparing to leap over the cans after him, "You're the one who's supposed to be chasing me! There's a time limit and—"

"NOW!" Izuku cried, just as she reached the apex of her jump.

From a blind spot around the corner of the alley, Mineta yanked on the ball covered rope that the trash cans had been hiding, pulling it directly into Ashido's flight path.

She ran into the rope with a squawk, tumbling to the ground as she flailed wildly to get free. Her efforts only succeeded in attaching more of the sticky spheres to herself and pulling the rope tighter.

Before she could recover from the shock of the capture and think to use her acid to melt the spheres off of herself, she was blasted with a high powered stream of water.

Several feet away, Izuku was standing with his thumb over the nozzle of a hose, directing the flow at the pink girl. He wasn't quite sure how much acid she could produce at once, or how quickly she could do it, but he hoped that the amount of water he was blasting would be enough to dilute her acid long enough for Mineta to wrap his capture tape around her hands.

Izuku kept the spray going for nearly a minute before he realized something was wrong. Ashido was still pinned in place, but Mineta hadn't moved to capture her yet.

Izuku risked a glance towards his purple partner, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. His capture tape, however, was plainly visible. It was lying on the ground, exactly where Mineta had been hiding in preparation for their ambush.

Izuku's eyes danced around the alley, looking for any trace of Mineta and coming up empty. It was only when he heard the unmistakable monotone voice of Asui that Izuku realized he had forgotten to look above him for the second time that day.

Asui was stuck flat to the wall directly above him, clinging to the actual wall rather than to any visible handholds. Her long tongue was extended several feet away from her, the end wrapped tightly around Mineta's unconscious body.

"Surrender, hero, or your friend gets it, kero," she croaked, shaking her hostage slightly for emphasis.

Izuku paled. He'd hoped that Asui would be reluctant to leave the bomb alone after the ending of the first match. Apparently she cared more about keeping her partner safe than protecting the bomb.

He reacted instinctively, and turned the hose on Asui. Predictably, the spray did nothing to the frog-girl, sliding off of her hydrophobic costume easily.

In the process, however, the water stream hit Mineta full in the face. He jerked back to wakefulness with a cry of surprise, then screamed even louder when he realized he was currently suspended in midair by Asui's tongue alone.

Despite his considerably thrashing, Mineta was unable to free himself from her grip. He was successful in throwing her balance off and drawing her attention away from Izuku, which was enough for Izuku to make his move.

He grabbed the only nearby object that could serve as a weapon, one of the trash cans that they had used to build their trap, and hurled it at Asui. She dodged the can easily, but doing so put her well within Izuku's reach.

He leapt up and towards her, as high as his legs would carry him, with his arm cocked back for a powerful punch. But before he could get close to her something small, warm, and very loud slammed into his back and knocked him back to the ground.

Seeing the oncoming punch, Asui had adopted the exact same strategy as Izuku had moments before. Instead of a trash can, however, she had opted to use Izuku's own partner against him.

The two tangled together in a pile of limbs, which was only made worse as they each tried to free themselves. Izuku did his best to help the other boy up while Mineta tried to free himself while rubbing against Izuku as little as possible. Neither were very successful, though they did manage to separate eventually.

What they found when they finally regained their feet once more was far from encouraging. Asui had dropped to the ground and was standing at the far end of the alley in a fighting stance. Ashido, meanwhile, had dissolved the spheres and rope that had been binding her and had moved to cover the other end of the alley. Her smile had finally slipped away, leaving her looking quite grumpy and more than a little soggy from the ordeal.

"H-hey, no hard feeling about tying you up, right?" Mineta said, a slight quiver appearing in his voice as he noticed the look on Ashido's face, "It's just part of class!"

"Mmmmhmmm," Ashido grunted noncommittally in response.

Izuku's mind raced for a solution to their current predicament. Ashido had already proven that she could go toe to toe with Izuku, and Asui's tongue was strong and fast. Mineta, on the other hand, had confessed to being rather inexperienced with combat, putting him and Izuku at a significant disadvantage in a straight-up fight.

There was nowhere to run, either. The two of them had both of the exits blocked, and Izuku didn't like the idea of leaving their backs exposed to Ashido and Asui's powerful ranged attacks while retreating.

Then a burst of inspiration struck him. Both Ashido and Asui were facing them down, which meant there was no one guarding the bomb. Izuku had been so focused on defeating his opponents that he had forgotten the real goal of the exercise.

A wild, desperate plan occurred to him in that moment. It was risky and would be far from pleasant, even if it worked like he hoped it would, but it looked like their best shot.

"Mineta, your balls are soft, right?" Izuku asked, barely taking his eyes off of Asui long enough to see the nod of agreement from his partner, "Okay. I have an idea. I need you to get on my back."

"You need me to _what_?"

Izuku shot the shorter boy what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Trust me. I have a plan."

Mineta's face went through a wide range of emotions before finally settling on acceptance. He pulled two balls off of his head, one in either hand, and leapt onto Izuku's back in a surprisingly smooth motion.

"Lots of practice with high shelves," he said, in answer to the unasked question.

Ashido and Asui surged forward, trying to take Izuku down before he could put his plan into action, but they were a little bit too late.

He called on the inner fire of One for All, fanning its flames until it surged out from his core and through his body. Then, just as it felt like his skin was going to combust, Izuku aimed his fist toward the ground in front of him, and punched.

The blast of air from his punch ripped through the alleyway and sent everything that wasn't nailed down flying backwards. Ashido skipped along the pavement, picking up several bruises and scrapes as she did so, before finally coming to a rest in a rather large pile of trash bags that had been left by the curb. Asui wasn't quite so lucky. She smacked into the wall of a large office building, the impact leaving her with stars in her eyes. She, at least, wasn't injured quite as much as Izuku.

He soared through the air above the mock city, unable to enjoy the trip due to the agony shooting up his arm and the screams of terror that were coming from his and Mineta's throats. Even knowing what had been coming, the speed and distance that they were traveling shocked him to his very core. He had only been planning to send them a short distance, far enough that they would have a head start in the race to the bomb. Instead they had reached the apex of their arc as they were almost above the park, meaning they would come down on the other side of the area.

"Mineta, make a landing platform!" Izuku shouted, fighting to make himself heard over the wind.

"What?" Mineta shrieked back.

"Your balls. We can use them to land!"

"I can't make that many!" Mineta called back, his voice filled with fear.

Izuku's stomach dropped instantly. He hadn't even considered the fact that Mineta's Quirk might not have a high enough limit for what he'd been planning. The two hadn't talked very much the first day, so Izuku's data on his Quirk was spotty at best, but he still should have put the effort in. Just because Mineta was a little stand-offish didn't mean they couldn't be friends.

"It's okay," he called reassuringly, "You can do it!"

"No I can't!" Mineta sobbed, "I wanna go hoooome!"

"You have to try!" Izuku called back, his eyes turning towards the rapidly approaching street beneath them. "You're stronger than you think, I know it! You just need to believe!"

There was a moment of heart stopping silence while Mineta processed his words. For just a brief moment, Izuku entertained the idea that Mineta wouldn't do it, and it would be up to Izuku to stop them.

He might be able to do it. They were traveling pretty fast, so their momentum might cancel out the wind pressure of a second punch. There was an equal chance they'd be launched back up into the air, though, and this time Izuku wouldn't be able to do anything. He could also try something smaller than a punch, like flicking his wrist or his fingers, but he had no idea how much wind that would generate. If it wasn't enough to slow them down then they would be in just as much trouble as they were now, only he wouldn't have enough time to come up with another plan.

Between the roaring wind and how hard he was concentrating, Izuku almost missed Mineta's response.

"Fuck it," the smaller boy said, releasing the death grip on Izuku's back he'd been maintaining since takeoff and began to hurl his balls as fast as he could. They stuck fast to the ground and to each other, forming a small purple cushion on the ground beneath them.

Izuku was surprised by how firm the balls were as he slammed into them. They had just enough give that Izuku didn't break any more bones, though he could tell he had picked up several new bruises in the landing. The balls compressed with the force of the landing, then flexed back into shape, sending Izuku launching backwards. Or, they would have if Izuku hadn't been stuck fast to the cushion. Instead they just jerked on his skin painfully as he bounced up and down, unable to free himself.

Finally, the bouncing ended, and Izuku's sense of balance reasserted itself. He was lying almost flat on top of the pile, his arms and legs spread-eagled and his head forcibly turned to the left. Mineta was no longer on his back, though he had no idea where the other boy had ended up. He must have been catapulted off of Izuku's back at some point during the landing.

"Midoriya! You okay, dude?" Mineta called, running over to him. Blood was dripping out from under his mask, and he was definitely limping a little bit, but he seemed to be okay.

"Fine," Izuku grunted. It was difficult to talk with half of his face stuck in place, but he managed anyway.

Mineta quickly began to peel the balls away from Izuku. As the diminutive boy touched them, the balls surface changed from intensely sticky to completely smooth in an instant. The sensation was so alien to Izuku that he couldn't quite put it into words. The closest he could get was the time he had stuck his hand in a bucket of non-newtonian slime his class had made during an elementary school science class.

Once Mineta had freed him, Izuku clambered unsteadily to his feet. His right arm was completely shattered and sent shocks of pain through him with every step, but he could push through the pain for a little while longer. Long enough to complete the match, at least.

"We need to get moving. Ashido and Asui will make it back to the park soon. We need to get there before they do, or we won't stand a chance." Izuku said, shaking his legs to make sure they were still intact.

"Are you kidding me?" Mineta said in disbelief, "Dude, we almost got pancaked a minute ago, your arm looks like beef jerky, and my head is bleeding like crazy! I didn't sign up to get the shit kicked out of me during a training exercise! Let's just take the loss and go get healed."

"I can't," Izuku said, "I… I need to pass this class."

"Is this, like, to impress a girl or something? Because I think you're going overboard if that's the case."

"NO!" Izuku said, shocked by the accusation, "It's… it's for me. I need to prove that I deserve to be here. That passing wasn't a fluke. That I'm not useless."

Mineta stared at him incredulously for a moment before finally shaking his head. "You're a strange man, Midoriya."

* * *

Izuku let out a sigh of relief as he and Mineta burst into the clearing around the pond and found it empty. Somehow, they had beaten the odds and made it back first. Now they just had to finish the final stretch.

"Ummm, where's the bomb?" Mineta asked, glancing around the clearing.

"I think Asui hid it in the pond," Izuku said, indicating the spot where he had seen the suspicious bubble trail earlier. The trail itself was long gone, but Izuku was fairly certain that he still remembered the exact spot it had been in.

"You mean we have to go swimming now?" Mineta groaned.

"I, uh, can't really swim right now," Izuku replied, indicating his broken arm.

Mineta let out a deep sigh in response, then pulled off his cape and boots. He set them down in a messy pile next to Izuku, then shot the taller boy a glare.

"The girls better start throwing themselves at me after this," he said before taking a series of deep breaths and leaping into the water.

Izuku was surprised with the grace of the dive. The diminutive boy hardly made a splash as he cut through the water and disappeared from view. His form was swift, sure, and looked quite practiced in Izuku's opinion.

Before he could ponder it further, a voice from behind him sent a shiver up his spine.

"Hey Midori," Ashido practically purred. Despite the sweet tone and friendly nickname, she could not have been more menacing.

Izuku spun to see both her and Asui emerging from the overgrown shrubbery. They were both limping, and their costumes were scuffed and torn in several places. Asui's hair had been pulled from its usual careful braid by the wind blast from his earlier punch, giving her a particularly feral look. Ashido's white domino mask had vanished at some point, leaving her face totally bare as she marched toward him.

There was no way he could win. Even if his arm hadn't been broken, he wasn't skilled enough to take on two opponents at once. Even still, Izuku planted his feet and raised his remaining arm in a fist. He might not be able to win, but he was going to go down swinging.

"The bomb has been disabled! The hero team wins!" All Might's voice boomed through the arena, making everyone jump in shock.

The sense of relief that shot through Izuku at those words sent him toppling forward as his legs finally gave out. It was over. Somehow, someway, they'd managed to pull out a victory.

A pair of strong arms caught him before he could hit the ground. He glanced up to find Ashido staring down at him, looking surprisingly concerned considering that they had been opponents just moments before.

"What the heck happened to you? I only got a couple of hits in, but you look like you just got hit by a car."

"My Quirk," he explained, "I'm… not good at controlling it."

"Wait, you break your bones every time?" she said, "I thought that first day was just an accident or something."

"No it's… pretty regular."

"That sounds rough, kero," Asui said, stepping over to his side and crouching down. "Do you think you can make it to Recovery Girl's office, or do you need someone to carry you?"

"I'll be fine," Izuku said, trying to struggle to his feet. His legs refused to respond, however, and he collapsed back into Ashido's grip.

"No, you won't," Ashido said, sliding his arm over her shoulder so that he could lean on her for support. "Tsuyu, can you make sure his arm doesn't move?"

Working together, they managed to hoist him to his feet with a minimal amount of jostling. Asui's control of her tongue allowed for small, deft movements in addition to the powerful swings that she had demonstrated in the match and their Quirk assessment. She used this ability to keep his arm steady during the process, which Izuku was immensely thankful for.

Before they could start heading towards Recovery Girl's office, the irritated voice of Mineta cut them off.

"Man, I did all the work. How come he gets carried back by pretty girls?"

"Because he's hurt, kero," Asui replied dryly, "and because he didn't get captured while ogling Ashido when she was tied up."

The look that Ashido shot the diminutive boy was filled with so much venom that Izuku could swear she had gained the ability to project acid from her eyes as well.

Mineta clicked his tongue. "You guys are just salty that you lost."

"We almost beat you a bunch of times!" Ashido complained. "Especially at the end there. If we'd been a bit quicker, you'd be the salty one!"

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" Mineta asked, pulling himself up slightly and presenting his best 'imperious' attitude, "third place in Kanagawa prefecture's under-four-foot swim meet two years running. You never stood a chance."

"Not sure a bronze medal is something to brag about," Asui said, placing a finger to her chin and cocking her head to the side. "But I'm surprised. I didn't take you for the athletic type."

"What, just because I appreciate the female form, I can't be into sports? I'll have you know, I'm quite multifaceted. In fact, if you want to hang out this weekend, I'll show you just how unique I am."

"Thanks but no thanks."

"_Alert_!" a mechanical voice called from behind them, "_Blood has been detected_!"

"_Agreed. Student is injured. Give us the student!_" a second voice said.

Izuku craned his neck around to get a look at the new arrivals. They were a pair of mid-sized robots with white plating and Recovery Girl's stylized "R" symbol branded on their chests. They were holding a stretcher between them and looking up at Izuku expectantly.

"Uhhh, what's with the freaky robots?" Ashido asked, stepping away from the pair.

They didn't look particularly intimidating, especially when compared to the faux villains from the entrance exam but there was something about their voices that sent a slight chill down Izuku's spine.

"Young Ashido, Asui, and Mineta, please leave young Midoriya with the recovery bots and make your way back to the observation room for your debrief and for the next match," All Might said, voice issuing from the speaker in the rightmost robot.

"Are you sure?" Ashido asked, glancing at the robot's expressionless faces, "They seem a little…"

"Ah, yes. Apparently a former student reprogrammed their voice lines for a prank, and the support department has been unable to change them back. I am told you get used to it."

"_Give us the weakened one! He will be upgraded!_" the second bot said, not helping the situation one bit.

"Midori, if they try to add any robot bits to you, I want you to run, okay?" Ashido whispered as she slowly lowered him onto the stretcher.

That brought a smile to his face, despite the pain he was in. "I'll do my best."

As the possible murderbots trundled him away, Izuku watched his three classmates wave goodbye to him before slowly beginning to pick their way back to the rest of the class. It was only when they were finally out of sight that he fully flopped back onto the stretcher and let the tears flow freely.

* * *

"Young man, this is the second day in a row that I have seen you," Recovery Girl said, clicking her tongue as she examined his broken arm. "I don't care for repeat visitors, particularly with this much frequency."

"I-I'm sorry," Izuku muttered, dipping his head in apology, "I didn't mean to disappoint you."

She sighed and hopped back in her chair. "I wish your type weren't so sincere in your apologies. It makes it so much harder to stay irritated with you."

"My type?" Izuku asked, cocking his head in confusion.

"Young man I had to deal with All Might practically every day while he was training here. Though his injuries were at least inflicted by someone other than himself."

That gave Izuku pause. Despite knowing about All Might's injury, it was hard to picture anyone being able to seriously battle against the hero. Even when he had still been in training.

"The problem is that your injuries are worse by far," Recovery Girl continued, "and you haven't had sufficient time to recover from your last healing. You'll have to wait for your stamina to recover somewhat before I can use my Quirk on you again, and that will take a few days."

Izuku winced. The idea of spending the weekend with a broken arm was not an appealing one. There was nothing to be done for it, however. He was extremely well versed in how Recovery Girl's Quirk used the body's natural energy to accelerate the healing process to superhuman levels. If the patient didn't have enough energy for the healing, the process could be deadly.

He was especially familiar with Recovery Girl's Quirk since she was one of the most prominent healing heroes in the world, and there had been a point in his childhood when Izuku had been convinced that his invisible Quirk was simply an undiscovered healing Quirk. The conditions for activating such a Quirk could be arcane, and there had been several instances of children realizing they had a healing Quirk much later than their peers. Unfortunately for Izuku, "later than usual" meant around seven or eight years old. He'd also tried every way he could think of to heal or patch up an existing injury, but to no avail.

A sharp rap on the door startled both of them, Recovery Girl because she hadn't been expecting her services to be needed again anytime soon, and Izuku because he hadn't been expecting to hear that particular knock while class was still in session.

"Is that nerd healed yet?" Katsuki called through the door, "Cuz if he is, I owe him a beating."

"He's kidding," Izuku explained to Recovery Girl, who had cocked an eyebrow. "Mostly."

She rolled her eyes, but let him in anyways. He stalked in, already changed out of his hero costume and back into his uniform and stood next to Izuku's bed, glaring first at Izuku's obviously still broken arm, then at Recovery Girl. His lips curled into a snarl, but Izuku cut him off before he could say anything they both might regret.

"K-Kacchan, shouldn't you be in class? There's still one more match."

Katsuki still looked angry, but he turned away from Recovery Girl with a click of his tongue. "Nah. Bunch of losers don't even know how to dissect a fight. I was doing all the work, and I don't need them leeching off me any more. Besides, we both know that fight's gonna be one sided as hell."

Izuku had to agree. As powerful as Tokoyami and Kaminari's Quirks were, the fight had been pretty heavily stacked against them. Aoyama's Quirk was the best counter to Tokoyami's, and Yaoyorozu's versatility and intelligence would only tilt the balance further in their favor. It was possible that there would be some tactical lapse or surprise upset, but Izuku didn't think it was very likely.

"Maybe. But it's still not good to skip class."

"Save it. I've wasted enough time with BS classes already. If they're not gonna let me fight again, I'm just gonna head home. Was going to let you come with once you got fixed up, maybe try and scope out some heroes on the way, but that's not fucking happening now."

"Kacchan, you know I don't like skipping class. Besides, you forgot about Ashido's party. That's after school today," Izuku supplied helpfully.

"I didn't forget shit," Katsuki snapped, "I'm not going."

"They're our classmates Kacchan. You should get to know them. Make some friends besides me."

"Why should I? Corpse threatened to expel someone on day one. Sooner or later he's going to follow through on that and kick a bunch of the extras out of class."

"That was just to scare us into doing our best. He wouldn't actually expel someone for no reason," Izuku said.

"He would, actually," Recovery Girl supplied, looking up from her paperwork briefly, "He expels those who he doesn't think can handle the hero course. Not all of us agree, but he has some sort of special deal with the principal."

Izuku felt his stomach drop. Part of the reason he'd been defending Aizawa was to assuage his own fears. After all, if the man had threatened to drop a student from the program once, he could do it again. Izuku had only just scraped by the first time, and he wasn't so sure he could do it again, especially after seeing what his classmates could really do that day. There had been some spectacular displays of ability from everyone else. Meanwhile, all Izuku had done was run away and break his own arm in the process.

The sudden crack of an explosion next to his ear nearly caused Izuku to leap out of bed in surprise. He should really be used to explosions at this point, given how long he had spent near Katsuki. Then again, the blond had very few chances to actually use his Quirk freely. The teachers had punished any on campus use of the ability severely, so he had only really been able to use it at the Lair, and even then he had had to mute the explosions so they didn't carry to far.

"Fuck off with that depressive shit Izuku," Katsuki said, leveling a glare at his friend. "Don't think I can't see you thinking about getting kicked out. That's BS. You've gotten further with half a Quirk than half these posers. You work that shit out and you'll finally be ready to be my sidekick, and leave the rest of them in the fucking dust."

Izuku couldn't help it. He smiled at Katsuki's naked ambition. For as long as he could remember, his friend had burned with the desire to be the best, to be the number one hero in the world. Izuku knew he could do it too. He'd always known. The only question was whether Izuku would be able to follow behind him, or be left in the dust.

But Katsuki had never seen it that way. He might call Izuku a nerd, and threaten to beat him up all the time, but he had never doubted that Izuku would be coming with him. And for that, Izuku would always be thankful.

"Thanks Kacchan."

"You can thank me by not doing it again. Shit's annoying."

"I'll do my best," Izuku said. Then, a thought occurred to him. "Kacchan, you still owe me that ramen from earlier, right? I think I want to cash that in after school."

"Eh?" Katsuki frowned for a moment as he tried to figure out what Izuku was getting at. Then, his eye widened. "No. I know what you're trying to do, and the answer is no. I won that match fair and square. I don't owe you shit."

Small as it was, Izuku sensed weakness. And while he normally would feel bad about pressing something like this, he didn't mind doing it for a good cause.

"The bet wasn't about whether you'd win. It was whether someone would put up a decent fight. And I think Uraraka definitely did that."

"I took her _and_ Horns on at the same time, and the only reason I didn't flatten them is because of some arbitrary bullshit. How is that a decent fight?"

"The part where you had to use your bracers, even though you told me you wouldn't need them."

Katsuki opened his mouth to disagree, then stopped short. As angry as he obviously was to have his own careless bet turned against him, he was firm about never going back on his word.

"Fine. I owe you a ramen. But I'm not going to the damn party. You wanna waste your time with that, fine. But I'm going to go do something productive."

"Kacchan, please? It won't be the same without you."

"Fucking why? You're the one who's always going on about making friends. I don't care."

"But… maybe you could find a training partner? Or something. I just… I don't want to go alone."

Katsuki snorted. "Aren't you all buddy buddy with Round Face and Raccoon Eyes now? Why don't you just go with them and leave me out of it?"

"Because you're my friend too. Me having more friends doesn't change that. But it's different with you. I don't have to worry about messing up."

He could see Katsuki wavering. It was subtle, a slight aversion of the eyes and a tensing of his hands, but the signs were there. Of course, seeing this made Izuku feel incredibly guilty. He hated using their friendship like this. But he couldn't think of a better way to get Katsuki to come along to the party. He was even more resistant to social interaction than Izuku was, willing to push people away at the slightest sign of deceit. But this was his chance to see that not everyone was like that. There were some people out there who meant what they said, and who would accept Katsuki as he was. Who would be his friend, despite all of his prickliness, just like Izuku was.

"Please Kacchan. For me?"

For a long moment, he thought his plea had fallen short. Then Katsuki sighed heavily and rose to his feet.

"I'm never doing you a favor again. And I'm making you sing something stupid in front of everyone as punishment."

Izuku's face lit up into a smile. He knew it was a tall task, to have Katsuki stay up late and come to an event he didn't care for just so that Izuku could feel better, so he was immensely thankful that Katsuki had agreed.

Katsuki might not always be the most vocal with his friendship, but the explosive blond showed it in other, more subtle ways. And that was something Izuku would always be thankful for.

"Thank you."

Katsuki grunted noncommittally in response, then grabbed his bag and started out the door. "See you in class, you damn nerd," he called back, refusing to acknowledge the thanks.

"See you," Izuku replied, before he leaned back with a sigh.

He felt much better after the exchange with Katsuki, but the dull ache coming from his arm was a constant reminder that not everything was okay. Even with the friends that he had made, he still had a long way to go before he truly felt like he was a proper member of their class.

Still, the fact that he was going to a party with friends was more than enough to keep him going, to let him bear the pain for as long as it took. He was going to have fun if it killed him and, if he was truly lucky, he might even make a new friend.

* * *

"While I appreciate your enthusiasm Toshinori, I would appreciate it if you would keep such deviations to a minimum in the future," Nedzu said, closing the file in front of him.

Toshinori quailed under the calm and peaceful look the pint-sized principal was giving him. It wasn't often that someone made him feel small and helpless, but Nedzu had a way of doing it that was more effective than anyone Toshinori had ever known before.

Part of it, he thought, was the all too familiar sensation of being called into the principal's office for a scolding. It may have been many years since he had sat in this same position, desperately trying to figure out which piece of accidentally broken gym equipment had been discovered and landed him there, but he still felt like he had been transported back in time.

"I'm very sorry," Toshinori said, bowing as low as he could without actually throwing himself to the ground.

He really was too. Seeing the children who were supposed to be in his care with injuries like that, particularly young Midoriya, had been a shock to the system and had shown him that he had made a mistake better than anything else could have.

Coming into the class, he'd been more excited than he had been in years. Signing up to teach at UA had been a means to an end when he had first begun to entertain the idea, but his summer with young Midoriya had changed that attitude. Watching the boy go from a scrawny hopeful to a viable hero candidate had been truly inspiring. The boy's passion and dedication reminded him of his own training so many years ago.

He'd wanted to share that experience with the class, and what better way than one of his favorite training exercises from his own days at UA?

The first match had shown him that things were different for these students. Young Bakugou and Uraraka had gone after each other with such ferocity that he had been taken aback. One moment they had been students, and the next they had become a pair of dueling warriors. He had known, of course, that hero training would eventually harden them, strip them of their youthful looks and attitudes. He'd thought he would have years before that happened though, not mere moments.

After that, things had just continued to go off the rails. Despite switching back to the predetermined lesson plan, the students had shown surprising amounts of aggression toward each other. Even the timid young Koda had used his power for offense rather than exploration or defense.

The attitude was something he might have expected to see among the students in their later years, once they had gained confidence in their abilities and their control. Not in children barely out of middle school who had been looking at their hero costumes with such wonder earlier that day.

He silently cursed himself for his failure to create a proper atmosphere for those students, for putting them through more than they should have had to handle.

"Now now, Toshinori, none of that," Nedzu said, rapping his paw sharply on the desk to grab Toshinori's attention, "I believe that you, as well as the rest of us here, have forgotten that you are a student of teaching as much as your charges are students of heroism. That means there will be struggles, and yes mistakes, as you grow into the role. That does not make you a failure, it makes you a person."

Toshinori sighed. Nedzu was right, of course. He always was. Still, it did not make his guilt any easier to bear, nor would it make his apology to Aizawa any easier.

"You don't need to worry about your peers either," Nedzu continued, eerily predicting Toshinori's thoughts. "While they may be quite proficient now, they all made similar mistakes when they were beginning their careers. It's inevitable when pro heroes attempt to adjust to a more civilian lifestyle. You may ask Miss Kayama to tell you about the dodgeball incident if hearing an example would ease your mind. She quite enjoys sharing that story, if I recall correctly."

That did bring a smile to Toshinori's face. Nemuri had been exceptionally welcoming to him, but he had noticed her tendency to tease her fellows did lead to the sharing of many stories at his and the other teachers' expense.

"Now, I believe it's time you get going," Nedzu said, "I expect to see you here bright and early tomorrow. You'll need to work hard if you want to be up to snuff for their next foundational heroics class."

Toshinori nodded his agreement, then rose slowly to his feet. Between capturing several villains on his way to school and maintaining his muscular form for a whole class, he had maxed out the time limit on his transformation, which had left him feeling rather exhausted. His muscles ached, and he knew from experience that it would take a long soak in the tub before he felt normal again. Or as normal as he could these days.

"Oh, and Toshinori?" Nedzu called just before the man could exit the room, "Do be patient with yourself. I know many things come easily to you, but not every skill can be intuited. Everyone needs a tutorial now and again, even the mighty All Might."

There was something about the way Nedzu said the words that made them stick in Toshinori's brain as he made his way back to the teacher's lounge to collect his things. They bounced around, nagging at the man until finally, just as he was prepared to leave, they clicked.

He wasn't the only one who had been thrust into a new situation without any guidance, or the only one floundering under such circumstances.

He slapped a palm to his face as he realized that he was failing as a teacher on more than one level. He had been waiting for young Midoriya to grasp on to One for All in the same way that he had, without any need for coaching or assistance.

A quick search of Aizawa's desk netted him the boy's contact information. He was thankful that Aizawa rarely used the desk, preferring to use whatever surface was closest to him at the time to fill out paperwork, which meant he didn't have to sort through too many papers.

With that done, Toshinori flipped open his phone and punched in the number for the Midoriya household. He would have preferred to contact his protege directly, but the school did not keep the student's personal numbers on hand. He would have to risk a discussion with the boy's mother, keeping the topic of the conversation as vague as possible.

Thankfully, no one picked up. Instead Toshinori was greeted by a rather adorable message from a much younger Midoriya apologizing for missing the call and instructing him to leave a message after the tone. The happiness and enthusiasm in the boy's voice brought a bright smile to Toshinori's face. It warmed his heart to know that Midoriya's enthusiasm and positive attitude had been just as prevalent in his childhood as they were now.

When the tone finally came, Toshinori cleared his throat and spoke as clearly as he could.

"Greetings, young Midoriya. It has been brought to my attention that you and I are long overdue for a discussion about your Quirk…"

* * *

First off, thank you to everyone who's been sticking with this story despite its long and inconsistent upload schedule. Your continued support means the world to me. I'm trying to get better about my writing schedule, and I think I've improved a fair bit, so my uploads should get a bit more frequent. And thank you to everyone who has joined part way through. The fact that you were willing to take a chance on an unfinished fic like mine is just awesome. I hope that you'll continue to stick around as we go on.

Also, thank you to RinneSage726 onfor pointing out that not sticking to the Japanese school conventions was stupid. You were absolutely right. I do my best, but sometimes I get a bit overzealous with my changes and do something ridiculous. Thanks for keeping me honest, and for improving this fic as a whole.

I know many of you have been wanting to know about Izuku's invisible Quirk. It wasn't my intention to keep you in the dark for so long. I have a tendency to condense plot lines in my head, which led me to think "Oh yeah, I can totally get to USJ within a chapter or two. Please don't judge me too harsly. That said, I don't want to keep you waiting much longer. It's my intention to make getting to the USJ and the reveal of Izuku's Quirk specifics ASAP. To that end, I plan to concentrate heavily on this fic once IzuMina week is over at the end of this month. Ideally I'll get two chapters out during April, assuming coronavirus doesn't end the world by then :D, putting us squarely at the reveal (and one of the scenes I've been looking forward to writing the most) by the end of it.

Thank you once again for reading, and I hope you all have an excellent and glutinous day!


	8. Party Rockers

**Author's Note**: I make no apologies for the music selection in this chapter. Suffer, as I have suffered!

* * *

"So, who's ready to party?" Mina asked the crowd that had assembled in front of the school gate.

To her utter delight, the entire class had gathered there once school had let out. Sure, some looked bored, others hesitant, and Bakugou had needed to be physically dragged there by Midoriya, but they had all come in the end.

She'd honestly been expecting at least a few of them to skip out, given what they'd gone through that day. If she hadn't been the one who had organized the whole thing, she would have been sorely tempted to. She'd put her all into the battle with Midoriya and Mineta earlier, and there was a very vocal part of her that just wanted to go home, soak her feet, and watch trashy T.V. for the rest of the evening.

But here they all were, ready to come out and have a good time with her. Her heart swelled with gratitude, and she promised herself that she would turn it up to eleven and be the best host of the best party that any of them had ever attended.

"I am!" Kirishima called, slipping into his role as ultimate wingman with ease.

"I must admit, I am rather excited as well," Yaoyorozu said demurely. "I have never had the opportunity to visit a public karaoke parlor, especially not with friends."

"Do you have strict parents?" Kaminari asked. "Or are there just no good karaoke places where you live?"

"Oh no, the movie theater we have at the house comes with a karaoke function. But neither of my parents particularly like karaoke, and asking one of the maids to join me felt rather disingenuous, since they would be obliged to participate no matter what their feelings on the subject."

Mina took a moment to be absolutely blown away by the fact that Yaoyorozu's family apparently had a private movie theater. It was obvious that the girl was rich, both from the way she acted and from the way she dressed, but that was another level of wealth entirely. She wasn't sure if she'd ever met someone that well off before.

What she was sure of, however, was that she was definitely going to set up a girls' night at Yaoyorozu's place sometime. Now that would truly be an evening to be remembered.

"Well then, we'll be sure to make your first time extra special," Mina said, ignoring Mineta's snort of laughter over the comment.

"My thanks," Yaoyorozu replied.

"No problem!" Mina said, flashing her a bright smile. Then she clapped her hands together to draw everyone's attention. "C'mon everyone! Follow me if you wanna have the best time ever!"

* * *

"You really know how to pick em Raccoon Eyes," Katsuki said as they arrived at their destination.

Izuku would never say anything, but he had to admit the karaoke spot Ashido had chosen was a little… underwhelming.

The building was a graffiti-covered concrete square tucked into a back alley, with only a small sign above the door to let them know that they had found "The Karaoke Cave." The few visible windows were covered with thick paper to prevent any light from leaking in, and the door itself had seen better days.

Izuku was actually rather surprised to see so much graffiti, given the fact that they were still relatively close to UA. Most delinquents wouldn't be willing to openly act out so close to the campus. He silently hoped that they wouldn't run into the delinquents responsible. He had no desire to meet people that bold and rebellious.

"How about you try finding a place that will take a party of 20 students on short notice, and that we can still afford?" Ashido said, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Katsuki.

He grumbled a little, but didn't say anything further. Ashido apparently took this as a victory, since she let a grin spread across her face and turned to face the group.

"Look, I know it doesn't look like much, but that just means we have to make it fun for each other. So put on a smile, and get ready to sing your hearts out, because I'm making sure every one of you gets up on stage at least once!"

Izuku swallowed hard. He had been counting on blending into the background so he wouldn't have to sing anything. It might still be possible for him to do that, but considering that Ashido was already looking at him and grinning evilly, he highly doubted it.

"You guys better be prepared to be awed!" Kaminari said, adopting a ridiculous pose that involved him crossing his arms in front of himself and extending his fingers into peace signs. "I'm an expert rapper!"

Jirou suddenly broke into a coughing fit that sounded suspiciously like suppressed laughter, leaning on Yaoyorozu for support. The reaction took a lot of the wind out of Kaminari's sails, but did little to deter Ashido.

"That's the spirit! C'mon guys!"

She led them into the lobby where a bored woman was in the middle of painting her nails at the front desk.

"We have a reservation under—" Ashdio said, only to be cut off.

"Through the door over there, the third room on the right. You have it for three hours," the receptionist said, not looking up from her nails.

Ashido deflated a little at the receptionist's attitude. "Awww, you're not even gonna let me say it?"

The receptionist shook her head, and finally turned her gaze towards them. "Nope. We get people putting down joke names every day, and I'm tired of it. If I hear one more person registering as the Donner party, I'm going to scratch their eyes out." To emphasize her point, she flexed her hand and her meticulously painted nails suddenly lengthened and became razor sharp claws.

"Okaaaay," Ashido replied, backing away slowly, "we're just gonna go sing now."

"Have fun or whatever. Don't make a mess," the receptionist replied, returning to her cuticles.

"Did you really put us down as the Donner party?" Uraraka asked, once they were a safe distance away from the terrifying worker.

"Nuh uh," Ashido said, shaking her head, "I put us down as 'Mina and the Chipmunks.' I have no idea why she started talking about reindeer."

"I believe she was referring to a different Donner," Yaoyorozu said with a chuckle.

"Well that's just confusing," Ashido replied, pouting slightly.

Before their conversation could continue any further, they reached the room that they had rented.

To Izuku's surprise, it was much more inviting than the exterior of the building would have implied. The room was large enough to house their entire class with only minimal squishing, and plenty of couches and chairs for everyone to have a seat when they weren't singing. These were arranged around a large table that was covered in various menus and song lists. A pair of tablets were resting on it as well, with charging cords trailing off behind one of the couches and presenting a tripping hazard if they weren't careful. Finally, a large T.V. took up most of the right wall, displaying the words 'Karaoke Cave' bouncing around on the screen while it waited for someone to use it.

"Whoa, this place is way nicer than I thought it would be," Kirishima said as he stepped into the room.

"Yeah, I was kind of expecting a dump from the outside. Nice pick, Mina!" Hagakure said, dropping onto one of the couches.

Ashido, for her part, looked relieved that everyone had come around on the venue. A massive grin was plastered across her face, and she was bouncing slightly as she looked around the room.

Izuku was glad to see her so happy. A part of him had been worried that she would take her loss during their mock battle earlier that afternoon hard, and maybe even hold it against him. Instead, she seemed to be just as upbeat as ever.

"Yo, what's with this song selection?" Kaminari called, brandishing one of the tablets over his head, "I haven't heard of any of these."

Jirou picked up the second tablet, then snorted when she saw what was on it.

"I bet you only listen to the top forty then. This stuff is old school. Like, I think my parents have a few of these on vinyl."

"Perhaps they only feature songs that are in the public domain?" Yaoyorozu ventured.

"Maybe. Hope you guys like classics," Jirou replied.

"Eh, I'll make do. Now, let's get this party started!" Kaminari said, picking up the tablet once more.

"Hold on a moment!" Iida said, loudly enough to grab everyone's attention. It took a few moments for everyone to quiet down, which Iida took as a chance to move to the front of the room where they could all see him easily.

"Given that Ashido was the one who organized this event, I think it is only proper that she is allowed to sing the first song. Assuming she wants to, of course."

"I agree," Yaoyorozu said, standing up as well, "If there is anyone who deserves to go first, it is the hostess."

A chorus of agreement followed the statements, as well as some applause for the one who had brought them all there.

"Awww, thanks guys!" Ashido said, flushing a little bit at the applause.

"Thank us by singing an awesome song!" Kirishima called.

"Now that I can do!"

* * *

The second Mina saw the song, she knew that she had to sing it. It didn't matter that she only knew half the lyrics, or that she was probably going to make a fool of herself in front of the entire class in doing it. In fact, it was better that way. It would be the perfect way to set the mood for the rest of the evening.

Satisfied with her choice, Mina looked up to see that everyone else was still working on their drink orders. Yaoyorozu had taken charge of that part, producing a pad of paper and a pen from her arm to take everything down, and proving just how awesome her Quirk was in the process. Mina was even a little bit jealous at that moment, despite how much she loved her own Quirk. Izuku, meanwhile, looked completely starstruck at the display, and had immediately begun asking her questions while he took notes in his own book.

That turned out to be extremely useful a few moments later when an argument broke out over who had claimed the next spot to sing. Eventually, Izuku offered to sacrifice a page in his notebook to make a list of who was singing when so that no one would accidentally jump the queue. It wasn't a perfect solution, and there would probably be some problems with it later on, but it was the thought that counted.

After that, it only took a few minutes for everyone to get their drinks in hand and get settled. Thankfully, no one complained that everything was from the vending machine across the way. Mina's wallet was crying enough from just that, and anything fancier would have made her regret her generous offer to everyone. At least Yaoyorozu had followed through on her own promise to purchase the snacks. There was plenty for everyone to munch on while they waited for their turn.

And then, finally, everyone was settled and ready to begin. Mina stood at the front of the room, with all eyes on her, ready to kick off what she hoped would be the best welcoming party any of them had ever been to.

"I'm not super good at speeches, so I'll keep it short," she said, "Have fun, sing your heart out, and make sure to get to know someone new tonight. Now, sit back, relax, and be amazed as I channel the greatest songstress to ever live!"

With that, Mina spun on her heel and let the music play.

As the first few notes rang throughout the room, she shook her legs and arms to work the kinks out, and prepared to absolutely ham it up. Then, she spun around, brought the mic to her lips, and began to sing.

"Baby can't you see, I'm calling…"

The effect was immediate. Sero and Kirishima began to applaud, though whether that was due to her song choice or just her acting was hard to tell. Uraraka and Jirou were snickering in their respective corners, while Tsunatori, Hagakure, and Aoyama were on their feet, dancing along with her. Everyone else looked confused by the reaction, probably because they were unfamiliar with the song.

She didn't entirely blame them, since it was fairly old by most people's standards, but she did hope that a few of them would look it up afterwards, if only to understand the joke. Who knows, maybe she would even convert a few of them.

As the song went on, Mina danced her absolute heart out. She shook and shimmied, hopped and dropped, and basically did everything she could to cover up for the fact that she was mumbling half the words outside of the chorus. Thankfully, a few other people were singing along with her, mostly Tsunatori and Hagakure, which covered her flubs a little bit.

She finished with a flourish, bouncing up slightly before dropping into a split while the last notes faded out. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was panting fairly hard, but she felt rather elated. She had killed that song, no two ways about it.

A burst of applause followed, with several people hopping to their feet to give her a standing ovation. She hopped back to her feet, grinned at their enthusiasm, then took a bow.

"That was most impressive, Ashido," Yaoyorozu said. She was still seated, but from where Mina was standing, it looked like the girl had been on the very edge of it for her performance. "I dare say we will all have a hard time following up such a performance."

"Aww, don't psych yourselves out!" Mina said, grabbing a bottle of water off the table. She wasn't sure who had brought or purchased them, but she was incredibly thankful that they had. "This is about having fun, not being good. If I wanted to do that, I would have picked a song I knew how to dance to, instead of just one I liked."

"That wasn't one you knew how to dance to?" Yaoyorozu said, sounding shocked.

"Nah. I was just messing around and having fun. Once you get into the rhythm, it's easy."

"I am not nearly that inventive," Yaoyorozu replied, "Or that flexible. Is that a result of your training?"

Mina shook her head. "Nah. I just like dancing. I do an hour or two every night in my room. Drives my brother crazy, 'cuz he's always trying to game at the same time, and the music 'throws him off his groove,'" she said, with exaggerated air quotes.

"That is quite the impressive regimen, Ashido," Iida said approvingly.

"Thanks!" she chirped, doffing an imaginary hat in his direction.

"All right, enough chatting!" Kaminari said, hopping to his feet. "It's my turn, and I'm ready to blow you all away!"

"Be still, my beating heart," Jirou muttered in a deadpan tone.

Instead of responding, Kaminari took the mic from Mina, then reached into his back pocket and whipped out a pair of sunglasses with tiny lightning bolts emblazoned on the sides. They looked pretty cheap, like the kind of thing you would buy at a discount store or from a shady guy on the street who sold "genuine hero merch, without the ridiculous store markups." Not that Mina had ever fallen for such a scam. She was a smart shopper who had never bought possibly toxic faux Midnight brand makeup from a lady who had promised it would show up on even the most vibrant of skin colors.

A wave of laughter passed through the room at the ridiculous gesture, but it was good-natured laughter, and Kaminari took it in stride. He stood at the front of the room, tapping his foot to the music that had started playing.

To Mina's surprise, it wasn't heavy guitar or synthetic tones that were playing, but piano notes and a synthesized crackle, like old timey radio static. Mina's foot began to tap along with Kaminari's, even though she was completely unfamiliar with whatever song he'd selected. Maybe she'd have to look it up after this…

And then Kaminari began to sing, and Mina lost it at the lyrics that he was somehow singing with a straight face.

"I'm beginning to feel like a rap god, rap god…"

To his credit, Kaminari did a decent job at keeping up with the song, despite obviously never hearing it before. He stumbled a few times, but it didn't throw him off his rhythm. He even managed to fit in a few poses while he was performing, which Mina approved of.

The applause when he finished wasn't as strong as it had been following Mina's performance, but it was there. Kaminari took a bow, then shot a pair of finger guns at the audience, which produced another wave of laughter.

After that, a steady clamor filled the room. The sign-up sheet received a burst of new entries as people fought for the spot they wanted or studiously avoided being anywhere near the sheet in the hopes that they would be passed over. Mina took note of this latter group, which was only a couple of people, and made a mental note to talk to them all. She wasn't going to actually force anyone to sing, but she was going to try her hardest to talk them into taking a turn. After all, a party was more fun when you were involved, even a little bit.

Some people made a serious effort with their songs, some just did it for the memes, and most were just trying their best to have a good time. All in all, it was exactly what Mina had been hoping for when she had first proposed the party, which made her a very happy camper.

* * *

"—Pony?" Uraraka said, turning to look at her.

Pony, who hadn't heard a word of what had just been said, flushed in embarrassment and tried to stutter out a response. Unfortunately, her brain seemed to have deserted her, and she couldn't manage to string together anything coherent.

It was so hard to concentrate in the chaotic atmosphere of the party. She kept getting distracted and losing her train of thought, or someone would interrupt or shout over her when she was mid-sentence and she would lose her place and have to start over. She was doing her best to relax and have fun, but it was absolutely exhausting, and Pony was starting to feel the mental fatigue of trying to translate her every word.

She was proud of her decision to come study in Japan, but it was times like this that she really missed home. Back there, she had tons of friends she could call up and have a relaxing day with, chatting about their favorite movies, their various crushes, or whatever else struck their fancy. Here in Japan, however, she struggled just to have a simple conversation with her classmates, and she wasn't sure if there was anyone she could really call a close friend.

Uraraka was nice, and Pony was thankful to have someone calling her by her first name again, but she worried that their friendship had only been because they were teamed up for class, and that they would drift apart now that they weren't being forced together by the teachers.

"S-Sorry," Pony said, well aware that an uncomfortable amount of time had passed since Uraraka's question, "Say again please?"

"Are you okay?" Uraraka asked, concern evident in her voice. "You look a little out of it."

"I am fine," Pony said quickly. "Just… hard to think with the noise."

There were at least three different discussions going on around them, with each person in them speaking as loud as they could to be heard over both each other as well as the music. All together, it made for quite the din, and kept Pony from being able to concentrate.

Uraraka nodded understandingly, then leveled a glare at Mineta and Kaminari. The two of them were the loudest group by far, enthusiastically discussing something that Pony couldn't even begin to comprehend. They were throwing out words she wasn't familiar with left and right, and the few words she was familiar with were being used in strange ways. She, at least, had never heard the words "top" and "bottom" used to describe people before.

"Want to go outside?" Uraraka asked, speaking slowly and carefully so Pony could easily understand.

"No thanks," Pony said, shaking her head. The last thing she wanted to do was interrupt the party or ruin Uraraka's fun, especially over something so unimportant. "I am okay."

Uraraka shrugged, then gave Pony's arm a comforting squeeze. It helped a lot, and Pony felt her resolve strengthen a bit. Sure, the party had been a bit rough so far, but that didn't mean it had to stay that way. She just had to keep pushing forward and work as hard as she could. She'd done it for the two years preparing to come to Japan. She could do it for just a little while longer.

Before she could strike out into the party once more, she felt a tentative tap on her shoulder. While she had been focused on psyching herself up, Midoriya had come up to stand beside her and Uraraka, looking even more nervous than he usually did.

"Hi Midoriya," Pony said, "What is up?"

"Oh, I just… um…" he swallowed hard, then squared his shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes before continuing. To her surprise, the words that came out of his mouth were not the usual Japanese, but heavily accented English.

"Are you having fun at the party?"

Pony's mouth nearly fell open in surprise. She'd been under the impression that her classmates only knew a phrase or two in English, the kind you picked up from watching foreign films or reading a magazine or two. She hadn't expected to hear anything near passable from anyone outside of their English teacher.

"Hai—er, yes," she replied, her brain struggling to make the switch between tongues for a moment. "Midoriya, you speak English?"

"Just... just a little," he said, nodding shyly. "I write better than I talk."

If that was true, and not just him being humble, then Pony was seriously impressed. No one would mistake him for a native speaker, but he seemed pretty fluent to her. He must have studied hard, and for quite a while too. It brought back memories of her own late night studies, trying to get the foreign words to stick in her head as she listened to the same simple sentences being read over and over on her audio player.

"How long have you been studying?" she asked.

"Ummmm, about eight years?" Midoriya said hesitantly.

"You started when you were _seven_?" Pony said, flabbergasted. She had only seriously started studying Japanese towards the end of middle school, when the idea of enrolling in UA had first become a real option for her. Before that, she had just learned small bits from watching anime and reading manga, but that had only been for a couple of years as well. It was no wonder Midoriya knew how to speak English so well. While she'd been messing around, he'd been working hard.

To her surprise, it wasn't a disheartening revelation. Rather, it made her want to work even harder, to catch up to her classmate, so she could have real conversations with everyone, and really immerse herself in the culture that she had already grown to adore.

"S-sort of," Midoriya replied. Apparently his stutter carried over between languages, which Pony found pretty amusing, and kind of adorable in its own way. "I wanted to read books about Quirks, but they were in English, and really hard. So I got some English picture books and a dictionary, and tried to learn."

"That's super impressive!" Pony said, meaning every word.

"I still need a dictionary to read them, though," he said sheepishly.

"Me too," Pony admitted.

They both chuckled at that, and shared a conspiratorial smile. As they did, Pony felt a weight that she hadn't known she was carrying lift off of her shoulders. This was what she had been missing. A chance to let her hair down and really talk to someone without having to constantly worry about messing up.

That did put all the pressure on Midoriya, which made her feel a little bit bad. Then again, he seemed to be way better at English than she was at Japanese, so maybe that was for the best.

"When did you start your Japanese?" Midoriya asked.

"Just a couple of years," she replied. "I started when I wanted to come study here, and the rest is history."

Midoriya looked a little confused at that last phrase, but pushed past it quickly.

"You're brave for coming here," he said. "Going new places is scary, and even more scary when it's hard to talk."

Pony nodded in agreement. She had been so nervous on the day of her flight to Japan that she had nearly thrown up. Thankfully, she had managed to not embarrass herself, but it had been a close thing. Arriving in Japan had been a little better, though not by much. She had still been so anxious and unsure that she had nearly given her taxi driver the wrong directions in her confusion.

That had been quite the harrowing day, but looking around at the party, Pony didn't regret it one bit. Sure, things were tougher than if she had remained in America, but that was part of the reason that she had come here. Back home things were so boring and familiar that she couldn't help but dream of far off places and adventure. Here in Japan, every day was an adventure, one way or another.

"It's scary, but fun too," Pony replied, giving Midoriya a smile.

"What are you two chatting about?" Uraraka said, stepping back over to the two.

She had grabbed a couple of drinks while Pony and Midoriya had been talking, and offered one to Pony, who took it gratefully. She hadn't noticed until the drink was right in front of her, but she was feeling rather parched.

"Learning a second language," Midoriya said, switching back to Japanese with only a little hesitation.

"Aww, I'm kinda jealous," Uraraka said with a small pout. "I always kinda wanted to learn English."

"Why not learn?" Pony asked, also reverting to Japanese.

"Not enough time. And my middle school teacher was _terrible_. He just gave us worksheets and then took a nap. If you woke him up, then he'd just shout at you."

Pony and Midoriya both winced at that, recalling their own experiences with less-than-stellar teachers. None of Pony's had been quite that bad, thankfully, though there had been a couple of stinkers. All the teachers at UA were great, though, which had been a load off her mind. None of them had said anything when she struggled for the right words after being called on, and Present Mic had even praised her for her Japanese skills, which had been awesome.

"That sounds rough," Midoriya said.

"It was, but it also gave me plenty of time to study for the UA entrance exams… So I guess I owe him."

Pony hummed in agreement, then paused as a thought occurred to her.

"Uraraka, Midoriya…" she said hesitantly, "can I help you with English, and you help me with Japanese?"

The two of them shared a quick glance, then turned back to her with a smile.

"That sounds like fun," Uraraka said.

"It really does," Midoriya agreed, nodding his head. "And it will be nice to finally have someone to practice with. I tried to get Kacchan to learn English once, but he only wanted to learn swear words."

Pony giggled. Apparently Bakugou hadn't changed too much over the years. She could easily picture a smaller version of him (with a tiny scowl of irritation) swearing up a storm while Midoriya frantically tried to stop him.

It was that giggle that finally tipped her off to what probably should have been obvious from the very start.

She didn't have to go looking for new friends here; she already had a pair of them staring her right in the face. She had no idea why it had taken her so long to realize that. Maybe it was nerves, or miscommunications, or maybe she had just been being a big old dummy.

Whatever the case, she knew better now, and she wouldn't make the same mistake again.

* * *

As Mina surveyed the party, a smile crept across her lips. The party was going excellently, with people laughing, chatting, snacking, and most importantly, singing.

There were a few holdouts. Tokoyami had holed up in the darkest corner of the room and was currently brooding there. If Mina had seen anyone else doing that, she would have been tempted to drag them out into the light so they could have fun with the rest of the group, but she got the feeling that Tokoyami was having his own brand of fun at the moment. Besides, she could see him occasionally glancing at the song selection pad, which meant he was probably working up the courage to get onstage, something she greatly approved of.

Midoriya was also lurking, though he was doing it by hiding behind Bakugou, Tsunatori, and Uraraka. Every time he noticed Mina looking his way, he would immediately dart behind one of them while trying to look casual about the whole affair. It was a blatant attempt to avoid singing, and Mina wasn't going to let it stand forever. That said, he was at least participating. He, Uraraka and Tsunatori seemed to be having a very lively discussion, though Mina couldn't make any of the words out from this distance. That put him leagues above the last hold out on Mina's list.

Todoroki had kept to the edge of the group since the start, and hadn't even made a single move to participate since. He hadn't even ordered a drink with everyone else, and had instead just pulled a bottle of water out of his bag.

He wasn't being hostile or anything, at least. Whenever anyone spoke to him, he'd respond in that peculiarly blunt manner of his, and he'd even agreed to cool a couple of people's drinks down for them. Even still, Mina wasn't going to let him keep to the sidelines the entire time. He'd never have any fun that way, and it was her job as host to make sure everyone at least smiled once throughout this whole thing.

"How are you doing Todoroki?" Mina asked, sliding into a conveniently empty seat next to him.

"Fine," he responded, giving a subtle nod of his head to acknowledge her presence while keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the front of the room, where Mineta was currently butchering a classic love ballad while making eyes at any girl looking remotely near him.

"Really? Because you seem kinda sullen," Mina said.

"I am fine."

"All right then," Mina chirped, rising back to her feet with a small groan, "I'll put you down for the next singer then?"

"I am—Wait, what?" Todoroki said, his stoic demeanor cracking for the first time that Mina had ever seen.

She took a moment to revel in her victory. She had knocked him off balance, and now it was time to swoop in for the kill.

"Well, I just figured that since you were doing fine, you wouldn't mind getting up there and singing. I know Hagakure would love to hear you sing…"

"I don't sing," he replied.

She sighed at the blunt response, but pushed on as best she could. "Okay, are you embarrassed to sing, or do you just not want to? Because if you're worried about being judged, no one cares. We all suck, and we know it. Tonight's just about having fun."

"I don't sing," he repeated, eyes looking very distant all of a sudden. "Not anymore."

And just like that, Mina realized she had hit a sore spot. She started to apologize, but Todoroki continued before she could.

"My mother used to take us before she was hospitalized. We stopped going to karaoke after that. I wasn't even going to come tonight, but when I mentioned it to my sister, she insisted. She said she'd make soba if I came."

Mina was pretty sure that was the longest statement anyone in the class had heard him make. It also hinted at some family troubles that she was by no means equipped to handle, especially not in the middle of a party. It also hinted at a very juicy possibility though.

"So what you're saying is that your sister bribed you into coming on the off chance you might actually have fun?"

He frowned, but didn't object to the idea, which told Mina she was right on the money.

"Okay, first of all, you _have_ to give me her number. I have the feeling we're gonna get on great. Second, if you get up there and sing, then I'll totally tell your sister that not only did you participate, you made a friend. Trust me, when she hears that, she'll be so happy she'll make your favorite soba for days."

When he actually licked his lips at the prospect, Mina knew she had him right where she wanted him. She owed this mysterious Todoroki sibling a debt of gratitude for setting her up so well.

"Soooo…?" Mina prompted.

There was a long pause while he apparently contemplated the relative worth of soba against public spectacle. Then, finally, he nodded his head in agreement.

"Great! Got a particular song you want to sing?"

He shook his head. "My mother always picked for me."

"Why mess with tradition then?" Mina said, hopping to her feet. "Besides, I've already got the perfect song in mind for you!"

Perfect was a bit of a stretch, but it would be pretty darn funny and that was what really mattered after all. With a grin, Mina hopped back to her feet and made her way over to where Hagakure and Kaminari were fighting over the song selection pad. It was time to introduce Todoroki to some good old Katy Perry.

* * *

"Dude, this is a terrible idea!" Kaminari said, "He practically bit your head off during lunch for talking to him, and it doesn't look like he's calmed down a bit all day."

Kirishima had to admit, Bakugou did look extremely irritated with the party, the people around him, and life in general. But that was the entire point of asking him to come on stage with them. He just needed to relax a little, and what better way than to let all his anger out in a song?

"Well, a second try never hurts!" Kirishima said, putting on a brave face. If this didn't work, he wasn't looking forward to the tongue lashing that was bound to follow. Bakugou's words at lunch had hurt a bit, even if he hadn't known how deep they would cut Kirishima when he said them. Or at least, Kirishima hoped he hadn't known how much they would hurt.

"It will if he tries to blow your face off. Dude is feral," Kaminari said, throwing his hands up in defeat.

Undeterred, Kirishima marched up to Bakugou, who was idly scrolling through something on his phone and occasionally throwing disapproving glares at Midoriya, who was seated nearby and was happily chatting with Sero about the mechanics of his Quirk.

"Hey Bakugou!" Kirishima said, "Me, Kaminari and Sero are gonna do a rap battle in a couple songs. Want in?"

"Fuck no," Bakugou replied immediately, not even looking up from his phone.

"Awwww, c'mon man. It'll be fun!" Kirishima said, not one to be dissuaded so easily.

"Don't care, not interested," Bakugou replied, finally looking up from his phone. "Get one of these other extras to do it, and leave me the fuck alone."

Kirishima was about to turn away in defeat when a new voice chimed in.

"Might have better luck with Sato, Kirishima. He's not afraid to get on stage, unlike some people," Jirou said, staring directly at Bakugou, in case there was any doubt about who she was referring to.

"You got something to say, Ears?" Bakugou snapped.

"Don't be upset, Bakugou," she replied, sounding more saccharine sweet than Kirishima would have ever thought possible. "No one's gonna judge you for being too embarrassed to sing. Honestly, it's kind of cute."

A vein started to pulse in Bakugou's head as he stared at Jirou with wide, furious eyes. "I am not fucking embarrassed," he hissed, the words barely audible over the din of the room.

"Sure you're not," Jirou said with a shrug.

The response only seemed to infuriate him, and he hopped to his feet and loomed over Jirou. To her credit, she didn't even bat an eye at the display. She just picked up her drink and took a long, slow drink.

"You know what, screw you," Bakugou said, turning away from her in a huff. "Shitty Hair! You better be better at rapping than you are at fighting, or this is gonna be boring as shit."

A smile crept its way across Kirishima's face. He'd practically given up hope of getting Bakugou to come out of his shell, but Jirou had pulled out a miracle. He owed her a drink or a snack later.

"I'll bring my 'A' game," he said.

He held out a hand for a fist bump, only for Bakugou to walk off without doing anything. After a moment of feeling extremely awkward, Kirishima lowered his fist and turned back to Kaminari and Sero. They had clearly heard that Bakugou was going to be joining them, and looked a little apprehensive at the prospect. In response, Kirishima flashed the biggest smile that he could and gave them a double thumbs up.

Bakugou was prickly, for sure, but Kirishima could tell that a lot of it was just an act. Maybe it was because he was also trying to project a different persona, or maybe it was just obvious to everyone. After all, Midoriya didn't seem to take Bakugou's foul mouth or insults personally, and neither did Jirou. Either way, Kirishima wanted to help Bakugou come out of his shell a little bit and make some friends other than Midoriya.

And a rap battle with some of the coolest dudes in the classroom sounded like the perfect first step to him.

* * *

Kyouka relaxed back into her seat with a smirk as Bakugou stormed off, with Kirishima following after him like an eager puppy.

Getting involved with them had been a bit of a spur of the moment decision, but she didn't regret it. Screwing with Bakugou had proved to be a surprisingly good source of entertainment, and he made it pretty easy too. All it took was a few words to turn him apoplectic, and from there it was just a matter of pointing him in whatever direction she wanted.

Kyouka didn't think of herself as being particularly manipulative, but she could see how people got to be that way. It was pretty darn fun. Although maybe that was just because the guy she was messing with was such a raging asshole.

She was distracted from her musing by a gentle tapping on her shoulder. She looked up, and was surprised to see Midoriya standing next to her chair, a nervous look on his face.

"Something wrong, Midoriya?" she asked

"N-no. I just wanted to say thanks. Kacchan said he wasn't going to sing or anything, and I couldn't say anything that would change his mind. So, um, thanks for helping him."

"Don't mention it," Kyouka said, waving him off.

"But I just—"

"Seriously, don't mention it," she said, more firmly this time. "I was taking him down a well-deserved peg. If something good came out of that, then that's just a happy coincidence."

Midoriya frowned at her for a moment. Then a small smile spread across his face. "You're a nice person, Jirou. I'm glad you're in our class."

Kyouka nearly spit out her drink. It wasn't just that the words were embarrassing, it was the open and honest way in which Midoriya delivered them that really made her want to crawl under a rock and die. She hadn't been this embarrassed since the last time she brought a friend over and her parents tried to show them home videos of her singing.

"I-I'm not…"

He shook his head before she could even finish. "You really are, though. You've been helping Kacchan out all day, even though he was mean to you. Plus you came out here without anyone bribing you, even though you look like you didn't want to, just because you wanted to make everyone's night better."

Now that was just plain wrong. Kyouka absolutely had her own reasons for coming that had nothing to do with the rest of the class's enjoyment of the party. Not that she would ever admit to it out loud. Those reasons were staying firmly buried where they would never see the light of day.

"So thanks a bunch, Jirou," Midoriya said, his smile so incredibly warm and friendly that Kyouka couldn't help but return it. "And if you ever need help with anything, please let me know."

"I'll, uh, I'll do that," Kyouka said, not quite sure how to respond. She was used to being the one with the off-putting aura in her conversations, so having someone who was seemingly unaffected was a strange experience.

"Great! I hope you enjoy the rest of the party!" Midoriya said before returning to his seat next to Sero.

Kyouka, meanwhile, let out a long sigh and slumped back into her chair. If that interaction was going to set the tone for the rest of the night, then she was regretting her decision to attend the party. Given the way Ashido was staring at her with hungry eyes and a song list in her hands, Kyouka was willing to bet she was right.

* * *

"Whoa, Sato you weren't kidding! These buns are to die for!" Kaminari said, stuffing an entire cinnamon bun into his mouth.

Sato blushed and scratched at the back of his head. When the group had decided to take a break for dinner, he had offered to get some dessert from a bakery he knew nearby. Mina had expected him to come back with a handful of morsels to share, or maybe a small cake. Instead he had returned with a heaping platter of every kind of delectable dessert known to man.

Despite the fact that there had been more than enough for everyone, they had fallen on the sweets with reckless abandon, especially once they had tasted how amazing they were.

"This must have been expensive," Hagakure said between bites of some kind of salted caramel bar. She had one in either hand and was alternating between them.

"Oh, well the owner is a friend of mine, so I kind of got them for free?" Sato replied.

"Okay, if you get free sweets all the time, then you are my new best friend!" Hagakure declared, taking another massive bite.

"It's not all the time," Sato amended quickly, "It's only because—"

"Wait wait wait!" Mineta cut in, surprising everyone with his interruption. "Don't just tell them!"

"Why not?" Sato said, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Because we're at a party, and that means that there's only one way to share interesting facts. It's time to play Truth or Dare!" Mineta declared, hopping up on his seat as he did so.

"Isn't that more of a sleepover thing?" Mina said.

"It's a party thing. Doesn't matter what kind of party," Mineta asserted. "Besides, are you telling me you don't want the chance to find out all kinds of fun and interesting things about your classmates?"

"Now don't go putting words in my mouth," Mina said quickly.

"I'm down for some truth or dare," Hagakure said, polishing off her bars. "Anyone else?"

To Mina's surprise, quite a few hands went up in response. People like Kaminari, Mineta, and Hagakure made sense, but Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, Aoyama, and Sato were a bit unexpected. That said, Mina greatly appreciated them wanting to join in. It was the perfect activity for getting to know each other, which was the entire point of the party in the first place. Plus, since so many people were already participating, it was almost a guarantee that more would be pulled in as time went on.

A bit of shuffling and rearranging of chairs later, and they were all in a loose semi-circle, with the table as a centerpiece so they all had somewhere to set their snacks and drinks while they played.

"Okay, I'll go first!" Hagakure declared, turning to face Sato, "Sato, how did you get all these sweets for free?"

"Hagakure, that is not how one plays truth or dare!" Iida said. He hadn't volunteered to participate, but seemed to have been drawn in anyways while they had been organizing the circle, much like Jirou and Midoriya who were looking perturbed about being drawn into the game by the people around them.

"Dude, really?" Kaminari said.

For his part, Iida seemed to realize he'd made a bit of a blunder. His cheeks turned pink, and he looked down at the floor under the pretext of cleaning his glasses, despite the fact that Mina couldn't see a single smudge on them.

"I, ah, apologize. I did not mean to disrupt everyone's fun. I simply prefer when an activity has a clear set of rules and procedures before I participate in it."

Mina narrowed her eyes as she stared at Iida. He was acting even more robotic than usual, almost as if he was…

"Iida, you don't have to be nervous. No one's gonna give you a hard time if you don't wanna play."

"No, I…" He sighed, then returned his glasses to his face so that he could look at her directly. "I suppose I am nervous. I have heard stories about such games going 'off the rails,' so to speak, and leaving some of the participants ostracized."

"Aww, you don't have to worry about that!" Hagakure said. "If anyone tries to be a butt-head and make you do stuff you're uncomfortable with, we'll set them straight!"

Iida still didn't look completely convinced, which prompted Yaoyorozu to jump in a moment later.

"Would it help if we set some rules first? That way no one will be forced to do something they are uncomfortable with."

Iida nodded vigorously in agreement and quickly set about drafting a rules sheet while a good portion of the group rolled their eyes. They didn't want to upset him, though, so they simply sat back and waited for him to finish.

The rules mostly amounted to "Don't make anyone uncomfortable" and "Don't be a dick." Mina hoped that they would have all followed those regardless, but she supposed it never hurt to double check.

"All right!" Mina said, once everything was squared away once more. "Hagakure, you still wanna go first?"

"Yep!" she said, clapping her hands together in excitement, "So! Sato, truth or dare?"

"Uh, truth?"

"How'd you get the desserts for free, and can I expect more?"

"Probably not, or not for free at least," he replied. "The guy who owns the bakery used to teach baking classes in my neighborhood. We got along really well, and even after I knew everything he was teaching, I would still go and help other kids out, kinda like a T.A. He's a really friendly guy, and he's always asking me about how many friends I made in school that day."

He paused his story for a moment to chuckle at the memory, then continued on. "It used to annoy the heck out of me, since he'd always ask the same questions every time I saw him. Didn't care that I always gave the same answer either. Anyways, I mentioned I was picking stuff up for this party, and he practically gave me half of the products he had left. Kept insisting they were about to go stale when I tried to pay him."

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Hagakure said, grabbing a cinnamon bun off of the table.

Mina made a mental note to swing by that bakery some time in the future. Purely to thank the owner for his generosity, of course, and not in the hopes of snagging some delicious snacks at a discount for being friends with Sato.

"All right Sato, your turn!" Mina said in order to distract herself from thoughts of more delicious treats. She'd already had three cream puffs and needed to wait at least a little while before grabbing another, lest people think her a glutton.

"Oh, right…" he said, glancing around the circle for someone to select. His eyes finally alighted on Kirishima, and the slight panic of being on the spot faded from his eyes. "Kirishima, truth or dare?"

"Truth!" he said, pounding on his chest for emphasis.

"Do you dye your own hair, or do you get someone else to do it?"

Kirishima's mouth dropped open. "How did you know it was dyed?"

Bakugou snorted, finally glancing up from his phone. "You missed a spot, dumb-ass."

Kirishima looked at Mina for confirmation.

"I mean, you did a good job considering it was your first attempt," she said. "But yeah, it's pretty obvious that it's dyed."

He pouted at her response, and for a moment she thought he was going to start sulking. Then he slapped himself on both cheeks, as though he were trying to stay awake during a particularly boring class. After doing that, he looked a lot less put out.

"Does it look good, at least?" he asked.

"Oh, totally!" Mina said.

"Very heroic," Hagakure chimed in.

Several other affirmations later, and Kirishima looked back to his normal self, which made Mina proud for her friend. She still remembered the old Kirishima, who had always been a bit prone to sulking when he thought he had messed up. It was nice to see him working so hard to change himself, and succeeding too. It made her feel like anyone could change.

"Why'd you decide to dye it in the first place?" Sero asked.

Kirishima opened his mouth to respond, but Mineta cut him off before he could even get a word out. "Hey, don't just jump ahead. Wait your turn like everyone else!"

Mina was a little surprised to see him defending the sanctity of the game, but then she remembered that he had been the one to propose it in the first place. Maybe he took a bit of pride in the continuation of it.

Or, more likely, he just wanted a chance to find out which of the girls were single.

Mina shook her head in exasperation at that thought, but decided to make the most of it.

"Mineta's right. No skipping turns. Kiri, you're up."

He took a moment to glance around the room to choose his target before finally selecting Sero. "Sero, truth or dare?"

Sero's ever present grin grew even wider as he stared directly at Kirishima and made his pronouncement. "Dare. Hit me with your best shot!"

From there, things proceeded rather excellently. Shoji showed off some impressive quirk control and dexterity by juggling no less than a dozen balls of mochi, much to Uraraka's dismay. Tokoyami reluctantly admitted that he enjoyed the occasional pop song from time to time, prompting Hagakure to try and drag him onstage for a duet. He resisted, barely, but eventually promised to sing something that "wasn't emo." Iida was convinced to try a dare, and made the politest prank call in history to his brother, who sounded amused by the whole affair, as well as all the people making strange and inappropriate noises in the background.

After Iida's attempt at a prank call was giggled at, he challenged anyone else in the room to do better. Mineta successfully one-upped him by calling the front desk for the Karaoke Cave and proceeded to attempt to flirt with the clerk. She immediately hung up on him, and in the silence that followed, everyone could hear the ominous scraping sound of razor sharp nails being filed into points.

After that, they mostly stuck with truths, lest they accidentally bite off more than they could chew in the spirit of competition.

Mina learned that Sato couldn't handle spicy food at all, that Kaminari had once wanted to become a musician (which seemed to completely shock Jirou), that Aoyama knew how to cook food from all over Europe, not just France, that Asui preferred to be called Tsuyu and that she had nine siblings, and that Yaoyorozu liked to watch action movies in her spare time, while Tsunatori was a massive fan of anime.

Much as she was loath to admit it, Mina probably owed Mineta one for coming up with the truth or dare idea. True, he had obviously been using it as a way to scope out who in the class he could flirt with, but he had brought everyone much closer together in the process, so Mina was willing to look past his intentions.

The only sticking point came towards the end of the game. Tsuyu had just been questioned about the grossest thing she had ever picked up with her tongue (her younger brother when he was covered in mud, apparently), and she had selected Midoriya as her next target.

"Midoriya, how did you get that scar?" she said, without a shred of emotion in her voice.

He immediately froze in place, looking like he'd been slapped in the face. Mina's heart instantly went out to him. He probably got questions about it all the time, since it was so prominent. Given how he'd reacted, there was probably also a pretty personal story behind it, which made everything even more awkward.

Mina wasn't the only one who had noticed Midoriya's reaction. Most of the class flinched back, or looked away from him as they suddenly felt incredibly intrusive and awkward. Bakugou, on the other hand, immediately rose to his feet and loomed over the pair of them. His usual angry scowl had worsened, and he looked practically livid.

"Tsuyu," Yaoyorozu said quickly, obviously trying to diffuse the tension that had sprung up, "perhaps you could select a different question. I believe you're making Midoriya uncomfortable."

"You don't have to answer," Tsuyu said, looking back towards Midoriya. "I was just curious if there was a story behind it."

"T-there is," Midoriya said hesitantly, "but it… it's not really my story to tell, so I don't think—"

"I did it," Bakugou said, stepping between the two. "Blew him and our whole class up when we were four."

If it hadn't been for the shocking admission he had just made, Mina would have called his behavior protective. That said, Mina was sure it was anything but Bakugou being kind. He had just admitted to assaulting Midoriya, and with his Quirk no less. Sure, it had been a long time ago, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

"K-Kacchan! Don't phrase it like that!" Midoriya gasped, jumping to his feet. "W-what he means is that there was an accident with his Quirk. He didn't mean to do it, and no one was hurt too badly!"

"Accident or not, those fuckers got what they deserved. Spineless bitches, the lot of them."

"Kacchan, they were kids!"

"And they're as shitty today as they were back then."

"So... does anyone else feel like they're missing out on some really important context?" Kaminari said.

His words seemed to remind Midoriya and Bakugou that they weren't alone. Midoriya turned sheepish while Bakugou doubled down on his irritation, glaring at anyone who would meet his gaze. Then, to Mina's surprise, Midoriya actually managed to cast aside his embarrassment and speak a few moments later.

"W-when we were kids, Kacchan was really popular. B-but when his Quirk came in, there was an accident. He was showing it off, and there was a big explosion, and a couple of people got hurt, including me. I… kind of landed on a rock, which is what gave me the scar," Midoriya said.

As he spoke, his hand idly traced the thin white line that ran down the side of his face. It looked like it had been extremely painful, and given that he had received it when he was so little, it had probably also been extremely scary.

"L-like I said, it was an accident," Midoriya continued. "We were all crowding around him and egging him on, and it was the first time Kacchan had really used his Quirk. But after that, everyone started acting like he had done it on purpose. They ran away if he came close, or called the teacher, or tried to hit him. T-they called him a _villain._"

Midoriya practically spat that last word, like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

All of a sudden, a lot of Bakugou's attitude made sense. Anyone would be a bit hostile after being treated like that for most of their life. In fact, Mina was surprised he hadn't gone even more extreme in his attitudes towards other people. Maybe that was because he was stubborn, or maybe it was Midoriya's tempering influence.

The revelation also made Mina feel incredibly guilty. Back in her elementary school days, there had been a kid in the neighboring class with a Quirk that made him double-jointed in nearly every part of his body. He'd been able to move in ways that were downright creepy to look at, and nearly everyone in the school had kept their distance from him. He hadn't flaunted his Quirk, and from what Mina remembered, he'd tried to move in ways that were more normal when people were around him. Every so often, though, he would bend or flex in a way that sent a shiver down people's spines.

None of the kids in his class had hung out with him, and Mina had seen him eating his lunch alone in the courtyard plenty of times. At the time she had felt bad for him, but the creepy factor had overwhelmed her feelings, and she had never approached him.

Now she wondered what exactly had happened to him. He hadn't had it quite as bad as Bakugou, but he had still been isolated and probably bullied for something he couldn't control, and something that seemed especially stupid when she looked back on it. Maybe she could dig out her old yearbook and try and reconnect, give him the support she hadn't been able to give when she was younger, if he would even want it.

"Dude, that sucks," Kaminari said eloquently.

A chorus of affirmations followed, some people expressing sympathy with Bakugou's plight, some implying that they would like to give his former classmates a piece of their mind, and some looking about as guilty as Mina felt. They probably had their own stories about a classmate with a weird or scary Quirk that they hadn't been very nice to, stories which took on a whole new meaning now.

"I suppose that it goes to show how thin the line between powerful and dangerous Quirks can be," Tokoyami said, with a distant look in his eyes. Or, at least Mina thought it was distant. "Mine own Dark Shadow is wont to run wild, given the opportunity. It has never hurt anyone, but there were a few close incidents."

"Dude, same," Kaminari said. "I spark randomly when I have a cold, and one time, I nearly fell into the school pool cuz I was running too fast."

"My parents thought I ran away when I was little," Hagakure chimed in, "because I didn't want to take a bath, so I took off all of my clothes and hid in the bathtub, since It was the last place that they would look. But then I fell asleep, and didn't wake up till that evening."

"I nearly dropped a 2x4 on my dad's head…" Uraraka admitted.

As it turned out, nearly everyone in the class had a similar story. Some were just small things, like Hagakure's story, while others had come close to seriously hurting someone or breaking something important. Even Mina wasn't immune. She had splashed a classmate with acid on accident before. Just a mild batch, not even enough to damage the skin, but it could have been.

Tokoyami was right, she supposed. They could all have ended up where Bakugou was standing at that moment, or somewhere even worse, if not for some serious luck. It was a sobering realization, and one that served to bring down the mood of the room by quite a bit.

Mina couldn't have that. So, when nearly everyone had shared a story of their Quirk causing problems and there was a lull in the conversation, she hopped to her feet and addressed the boy who had started it all.

"Check it out, Bakugou. You've got plenty of friends here. So, feel free to tone down the shouting any time, and we'll get along great!"

"Whatever," Bakugou said, crossing his arms and turning away from her in a huff.

Except, he didn't sound quite as irritated as usual. It was more of an act, like he was hiding his real feelings behind a layer of faux prickliness that was part and parcel to his personality. Kind of like the way he usually interacted with Midoriya, which let Mina know she was on the right track to breaking into his shell. And, with enough time, she was sure that she could do it, turning 1A's resident grouch into a… slightly less grouchy friend.

"That said, we've been doing too much talking," Mina said, turning to address everyone else, "and not nearly enough singing. Anyone know how much time is left?"

There was some general shrugging and shaking off heads, since no one had really bothered to keep track, before Midoriya pulled out his phone and actually checked the time.

"It's…" he said, trailing off before he could quite finish. His eyes went wide, and his lips tightened into a thin line as he drew in a quick breath.

"Midoriya?" Mina asked, stepping closer. "Everything okay?"

"I… I don't know," he said shakily, "My mom called me a bunch of times. I-I guess I didn't hear it over the music." He quickly stood, cradling his phone like he was afraid that he would drop it and lose his lifeline to his mother. "S-sorry, I need to go call her back."

With that, he dashed out of the door, leaving Mina a little taken aback by his abrupt exit and more than a little worried about him. Something about the way that he had exited left her unable to get it out of her head. He'd looked so freaked out about missing the calls from his mother that Mina had to wonder if she was sick. Or maybe someone else in their family. Or something else was wrong, and...

It was driving her crazy. Not the not-knowing part, but the possibility that Midoriya was going through something difficult without anyone at his side. Bakugou had looked up from his phone when Midoriya had left, but he hadn't seemed overly concerned about it, since he had gone right back to his phone. Maybe Mina should take that as a sign that she should move on from the display, but after the talk from earlier, she just couldn't.

So, after a few minutes of deliberation, she rose to her feet and excused herself for a moment. Whether or not Midoriya needed her, she was gonna go lend an ear or a shoulder, or whatever was necessary.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice two separate pairs of eyes following her out as she left the party behind.

* * *

Izuku took a deep, steadying breath as he stepped out of the building. The air was cool and crisp, a vast departure from the stifling atmosphere of the karaoke parlor. The room had been air conditioned, but twenty dancing and singing students in a single room generated quite a bit of heat. Add that to his panic, and it was a recipe for a sweat-soaked brow and clammy hands that made it extremely difficult to punch in the number he wanted.

"Izuku, honey, is that you?" Inko said, the moment the call connected.

Izuku took a moment to let out a small sigh of relief. He'd been picturing increasingly worrying scenarios the entire time that the phone had been ringing, and actually hearing her voice had taken a great weight off of his shoulders.

"It's me mom. Is everything okay?"

"I should be the one asking you that. When I got back from the store this afternoon, there was a message from All Might asking to talk to you about a villain attack! Then, when I tried to call you about it, I went straight to voicemail! You didn't get attacked by another villain, did you? Please tell me you aren't hurt!"

"Mom, mom, I'm fine! There wasn't a villain attack! I'm at a party with my friends, remember? The music was really loud, and there were a lot of people messing around, so I didn't hear my phone go off. I'm really, really sorry I scared you."

Her own sigh of relief sent a crackle of static through the phone, and eased the last of Izuku's tension. He hated worrying her, especially when it was due to something so trivial as not hearing his phone go off.

"I'm sorry," he said once more.

"It's all right," she replied, sounding much, much calmer now, "I'm sorry too. I know I'll have to get used to situations like this once you graduate, but it's still hard for me to think of my baby in danger."

He was about to apologize for a third time, when a thought occurred to him.

"Mom, did you say All Might left a message for me? About a villain attack?"

"Oh, yes. Well, I think he started off talking about your Quirk, but he sounded nervous, so I started to get nervous. Then he said something about you getting involved with a slimy villain. I don't remember much of what he said after that though…"

[]Izuku racked his brain, trying to puzzle out what exactly that meant. The "slimy villain" was probably referring to the sludge villain incident where he and All Might had first met, but he hadn't gotten hurt in that incident. Maybe he had thought of some additional pointers to give Izuku after the mock battle with Ashido that afternoon? But she used acid, not slime, which All Might was well aware of. Besides, Izuku's injuries from the battle weren't worth mentioning, especially not to his mother. They'd all completely healed at this point, and most of them had been self inflicted…

With a start, Izuku realized what was really going on. All Might wanted to discuss One for All, probably in a private setting. It must have been decently urgent too, since he had risked leaving a coded message with his mother rather than waiting for Monday to roll around to talk to Izuku.

For the first time, Izuku wished he had been brave enough to ask for All Might's number. Not that he actually would have used it, since the idea of bothering the hero by calling at an inopportune time made him cringe, but it would have let All Might leave a message without the risk of his mother finding out about their secret.

He glanced around, searching vainly for a clock or some other display that would let him know exactly what time it was. He hadn't really been keeping track during the party and hadn't thought to check his phone before the call. If he was lucky, there would be enough time for him to go back inside and say goodbye to everyone before he caught the next train home to listen to the message and call All Might back.

Unfortunately, there were none in sight, so Izuku had to turn his mother for assistance.

"Mom, what time is it?"

"Hmmm? Oh, it's a quarter past eight."

Izuku sighed in relief. It would be tight, and he would probably have to run a bit to reach the station, but he would have time to give everyone a farewell.

He felt bad about having to leave the party early, but he would feel even worse about leaving All Might waiting all evening, or worse, all weekend. Even beyond his love and respect for the hero, there was a chance that he was planning to tell Izuku more about how to handle One for All, which was a chance he couldn't afford to miss.

"Okay. Thanks for calling me mom. I'll be home soon."

"Oh, is the party over already?" she said, sounding surprised.

"No, but I'm sure they'll understand that I have to leave early," Izuku replied, already heading back towards the karaoke parlor.

"Oh dear, you should stay. You were looking forward to this so much, it would be a shame to miss it. I'm sure Mr. All Might would understand if you called him in the morning…"

She was probably right, but a part of Izuku rebelled at the very idea of making All Might wait. His time was incredibly important, especially now that he had a time limit on how long he could stay transformed. Making him wait for something as inane as a party seemed downright irresponsible.

But there was also a part of him that wanted desperately to stay. Despite how uncomfortable the discussion about his scar and Katsuki's ostracism had been, Izuku had been having fun for the most part. He had enjoyed getting to know Tsunatori, switching between Japanese and English as necessary to continue the conversation, and using charades when words failed. He'd liked listening to his classmates singing the songs that they were barely familiar with, and laughing along with them when they flubbed the lyrics, or tripped over some piece of furniture in their attempts to match Ashido's dance performance. And he'd been incredibly happy to see Katsuki letting down his walls a bit and interacting with other people in a somewhat less hostile manner for once.

He was so torn between staying for the final hour of the party and rushing home immediately that he didn't say anything for several seconds while he weighed the options.

His mother must have taken his silence for a response, since she let out a loud sigh. "Well, I suppose it's up to you. I'll start cooking now, but if you decide to stay, just let me know and I'll put it in the oven for you, okay?"

"I… thanks mom,"

"You're welcome, honey" she replied before hanging up the phone.

He let out another sigh and turned back to face the parlor's door. He was feeling way too mixed up at the moment to return inside. The cool evening air was helping, but not as quickly as he would have liked. Instead, he opted for a quick walk around the block to clear his head and settle his thoughts.

He went to take a step forward, then frowned as his leg refused to respond to him. Or, he tried to frown. None of his muscles, from the tips of his toes to the bridge of his nose would respond to him. He was utterly and totally paralyzed, in a way that could only be the result of a Quirk.

"Do you have any idea," a familiar voice said from behind him, "how long I've been waiting out here?"

Izuku would know that voice in his sleep. After all, it had featured prominently in several dreams over the years that had caused him to wake up in a cold sweat.

Slowly, Shindo walked around to stand in front of Izuku. He was dressed in a school uniform, with an unfamiliar school emblem emblazoned on the breast, with a pair of steel toed boots that were definitely not standard issue. His steps were careful and measured, leaving one foot on the ground at all times to keep Izuku pinned in place.

For a brief moment, Izuku wondered how this was possible. Shindo's Quirk let him paralyze people by stepping on their shadow, and once he stepped off again, they were free to move. Theoretically, he could pace up and down someone's shadow and keep them pinned, but walking around a person like he had just done should have been impossible.

Using his peripheral vision as best he could, Izuku looked to Shindo's feet for an answer. His boots were firmly planted on the shadowed ground, which tipped Izuku off to exactly what happened. In the gloom of the alleyway, all of the shadows had blended together into one amorphous blob, a blob that Shindo was firmly stomping on with every step. It was a fascinating application of his Quirk, and Izuku instantly wanted to know more. Could he chain shadows together to pin someone from a distance? Was there a range limit to his Quirk, or could he pin anyone in the world if the shadows touched? Did the shadows have to be connected on the ground, or could he connect them through the air at night, making anyone standing in the dark vulnerable to his paralysis? Could he—

"Hours! Thought a wet blanket like you would have been kicked out ages ago," Shindo said, snapping Izuku's attention back to him, "But I guess the people at UA are more tolerant than I gave them credit for. Figures, considering they let a slacker like you into the program."

Even if Izuku could speak at the moment, he had no idea how to respond to that. He felt like he should have some quip, some line at the ready to defend his classmate's honor, but he didn't have anything except a desire to curl up into a ball.

"I honestly don't get it. UA was supposed to be the best school in the world, and take only the best. And yet, somehow, you managed to weasel your way in. So, I want to know how you did it. Did you bribe someone? Find some lonely administrator and sleep your way in? Or did you just sic Bakugou on them, like you always do?"

At that moment, Izuku dearly wished that he had some sort of eye-based Quirk, so that the glare he shot at Shindo could actually kill him. He could tolerate many insults directed at him, he had for years, but hearing them leveled against his school, against his classmates, against Katsuki… that was just too much to bear.

With all of the willpower he possessed, Izuku fought to break Shindo's control, to take just a single step forward, or even wiggle a finger. Unfortunately, all his efforts were for naught. All he succeeded in doing was giving himself a headache.

"Now, I think it's time you and I had a long talk…" Shindo said ominously.

From his back pocket, he drew out a pair of handcuffs that Izuku very much didn't like the look of. It made sense, in a terrible way. Shindo wouldn't want him fighting back, but if he wanted Izuku to respond to anything he said, he would have to release his Quirk's hold.

As Shindo advanced, Izuku ran through his options. He couldn't move, which meant One for All was useless, even if he could manage to use it without sending himself to the hospital. Besides, using it on a person would result in severe injuries at best, and Izuku couldn't bring himself to do that. He could try shouting for help, but he had a feeling that Shindo would keep him from doing that before he released his Quirk.

In the end, it would be like it had always been. Shindo would have his way, and Izuku would limp away at the end with tears in his eyes and a feeling like he'd messed up in a way he couldn't quite figure out. Maybe if he was lucky he could convince Katsuki to bring his bag out to him so he didn't have to face the rest of the class with a black eye.

"Midoriya? You okay out here?" Ashido called, stepping out of the karaoke parlor's entrance. "You dashed out in kind of a hurry..."

She met Izuku's eyes, and froze in place. He had no idea what kind of face he was making at the moment, but he hoped it wasn't too alarming. The last thing that he wanted was for Ashido to get involved in this. If it ruined the night that she had worked so hard to set up, he didn't know what he would do. Thankfully, Shindo had stuffed the handcuffs behind his back, so Ashido wouldn't be able to see them very easily.

"Everything okay out here?" she asked, shooting Izuku a questioning look.

He couldn't reply, of course, so he did everything he could to indicate with his eyes that she should just turn around and go back inside. Right now, she was standing in the shaft of light that was emanating from the karaoke parlor's lobby. That meant she was totally cut off from the shadows in the alleyway, and with her own shadow well out of reach and perfectly safe. Izuku had never seen Shindo paralyze more than one person at a time, but he had also never seen him chain shadows, so he wasn't willing to bet on anything at this point.

"We're just fine," Shindo said, "just a couple of old classmates catching up."

Ashido's eyes narrowed at that, the shadows from the doorway turning them into twin pools of shadow that would have been remarkably threatening if Izuku didn't know the lovely, caring person they were attached to.

"Midoriya, is that true?" she asked, turning back to look at Izuku.

He tried to reassure her, he really did, but he couldn't say anything. Part of it was Shindo's power, but another part of it was simply guilt and shame. He wanted her to go back, he really did, but there was a small part of him that wanted to be rescued, that wanted a hero to save him.

"Midoriya?" she asked, concern evident in her voice.

As she spoke, she took a step forward into the shadows, and several things happened in quick succession.

Izuku's muscles suddenly started responding to his commands, sending him toppling to the ground in surprise. Shindo, the cause of his sudden release, had leapt forward towards Ashido in a bid to paralyze her. She, in turn, had seen Izuku begin to fall and had stepped forward to try and grab him. She never made it, as halfway there her body took on the tell-tale stiffness of someone who had been paralyzed by Shindo's Quirk.

Izuku didn't know why Shindo had switched targets. Maybe he thought Ashido would cause a ruckus if she figured out what was going on. Maybe he was wary of a hero course student whose Quirk he didn't know. Or maybe he just assumed Izuku was too thoroughly cowed to do anything about his friend getting taken hostage.

Izuku didn't care much for the reasoning at the moment, though. He was far too busy charging Shindo with all the power he could muster. It wasn't a huge amount, since he was still off balance and dizzy from the sudden ending of the paralysis, but he still gave it his all.

To his relief, the surprise tackle worked. Shindo went sprawling to the ground, a look of utter shock on his face. He clearly hadn't been expecting his erstwhile victim to go on the offensive. At the same time, Ashido toppled to the ground with a yelp of surprise, her arms and legs spasming in confusion of going back and forth between paralysis and freedom very quickly.

A moment later, Izuku felt himself being roughly shoved to the side as Shindo disentangled himself and scrambled to his feet. His uniform was scuffed, and he was rubbing his forehead in a way that indicated that there would be a bruise there the next morning.

"You little shit!" he spat, "When did you learn to fight back?"

"When you started attacking the people I care about," Izuku replied, clambering to his feet as well. Throwing himself at Shindo hadn't done his dizziness any favors, but his head was rapidly clearing now that he was upright and under his own control once more.

To that end, he took a few steps back, grabbing Ashido's arm and pulling her with him, until they were standing in the light from the door. To his surprise, Shindo didn't make any moves to stop them, and instead just stared as they went.

"And I didn't cheat," Izuku said, once they were safely in the light, "I-I worked hard, and I trained, and I nearly failed so many times, but I passed, and I did it all on my own."

"You? Work hard?" Shindo said with a dry laugh. "You expect me to believe that?"

"Hey!" Ashido said. "I don't know what your problem is, but I've known Midoriya for less than a week, and I already know he's a super hard worker!"

"Such a hard worker that he couldn't even be bothered to learn to use his Quirk?"

Ashido frowned in confusion and turned to look at Izuku, no doubt wondering what exactly Shindo was talking about. To her, the idea of Izuku not knowing how to use his Quirk seemed outlandish, since she'd seen him use One for All nearly every day.

"I-I did try!" Izuku said, unable to contain himself any longer, "I tried every day! I… I wanted to be able to use my Quirk. But I couldn't figure out how to."

"Oh, come off yourself," Shindo replied. "You couldn't figure it out? It's the easiest thing in the world!"

"Maybe for you!" Izuku snapped.

He hadn't meant for the words to come out like that, hadn't meant for them to come out at all, really. But once they were out, they refused to stop coming. Years upon years of the same jokes, the same ignorance, being levied against him finally broke the wall he had put up to keep his feelings in check.

"Maybe for you. But I'm not like you. No matter what I tried, I just couldn't do anything special. I spent hours trying to move stuff with my mind, or push things without touching them, or breathe fire, or do anything. I focused until my head ached, and then I kept going because I hoped that somehow that was a sign that I was doing something right. I-I bled, and burned myself, and I nearly downed, and _nothing worked_. No matter what I tried or how hard I wished, I just couldn't do what you all did so easily."

He paused for breath, his hands shaking from the myriad emotions surging through him. Then, to his surprise, he felt a warm hand wrapped around his, and gave it a comforting squeeze.

The relief he felt from that simple gesture was hard to put into words. A part of him had been sure that his emotional rant would send Ashido running for the hills, leaving the weird kid with the weird Quirk behind. Instead, she was standing at his side, silently lending her support in a way he couldn't ever remember receiving before. It was… nice. It made him feel like maybe, possibly, things would be okay.

"But, you know what?" he said, his voice sounding much less shaky to his ears than it had just a few moments before. "Despite how hard it was, despite you and almost everyone else telling me I couldn't do it, I made it into UA. Kacchan too. And now, we don't have to listen to you call us lazy, or stupid, or a monster. We're going to be heroes, just like we always said we would. And, one day, you might just thank us for keeping you safe from a villain attack."

He let out a long sigh, letting the last of the pent up emotions flow out with the air.

"So, I forgive you for everything Shindo. But I'm done talking to you. Have a nice evening, and goodbye."

That dark part of him appreciated the look of absolute shock on Shindo's face at that moment. He looked like he had been slapped across the face, and his mouth was working silently as he tried to come up with some sort of response. Whatever he had been expecting Izuku to say or do, he hadn't been expecting forgiveness followed by a swift dismissal.

Before Shindo could pull himself together, Izuku spun on his heel and began to make his way back inside. He meant what he had said. He didn't want to deal with Shindo any longer than he had to.

Shindo, of course, had other plans.

"Don't you walk away from me you cowa—"

"The fuck are _you_ doing here?" Katsuki growled, stepping out of the parlor and into the alleyway with his palms already sparking. Uraraka followed close on his heels, though she pulled up short when she saw the state that Izuku was in.

"Nothing!" Shindo said, throwing his hands up as Katsuki approached, "Came here for some karaoke. If I had known you were here, I never would have bothered!"

"He did something weird to Midoriya and me," Ashido said quickly. "Midoriya was weirdly stiff when I came out, and then this guy ran at me, and I couldn't move. Midoriya stopped him though."

The crack of twin explosions filled the air as Katsuki's anger overwhelmed his control of his Quirk and ignited the sweat that had pooled in his palms. Ashido and Uraraka both flinched at the sound, but Izuku didn't even blink. He'd known from the second that Katsuki saw Shindo that he was going to attack. It was as inevitable as the tides.

Or so Izuku thought. Apparently Shindo had other ideas, because the second that Katsuki's palms ignited, Shindo whipped around and sprinted out of the alleyway for all he was worth. He didn't bother to flip Katsuki off as he ran, or throw out any parting words promising retribution as he was wont to do.

Katsuki moved to chase after him and deliver the beating that those explosions had promised, but Izuku stepped in front of him before he could get very far.

"Just let him go," Izuku said, shaking his head for emphasis.

"Fucker attacked you."

"And we beat him," Izuku replied, staring into Katsuki's eyes as calmly as he could. "Why should we bother fighting someone who's already lost?"

Slowly, the anger bled out of Katsuki's eyes and was replaced by amusement and approval. He'd always pushed Izuku to move on from the people who were "behind" or "beneath" them. He seemed to think that most people were lost causes, and that they couldn't (or wouldn't) change in time. It wasn't a sentiment that Izuku agreed with, but it was one that he was willing to use if it meant avoiding another incident between Katsuki and Shindo. UA might have been willing to look past his record from before entering the school, but now that he was enrolled it might be a different story.

Finally, Katsuki let out a sigh and let his hands drop to his sides. The tension had bled out of his body, leaving him in his normal, slightly-irritated-with-the-world state.

"Fine. But if I see him around here again, they'll be peeling chunks off the walls."

"Um, Deku, Ashido, are you all right?" Uraraka said. "That guy didn't hurt you, right?"

"I'm good," Ashido said, turning to Izuku. "How about you? You kinda fell on your face while you were white knighting back there."

Izuku frowned in confusion at the unfamiliar term and rubbed at his elbow. He hadn't noticed before, but it did ache a little bit from the fall. He doubted it was more than a simple bruise, however, and wouldn't keep him down.

"I'm fine too. What's 'white nighting'?"

Both Ashido and Uraraka giggled at his response while Katsuki just rolled his eyes.

"What was that fucker doing here, anyway?" Katsuki asked, once the two girls had got their levity under control. "No way him running into you was an accident."

"No, it wasn't," Izuku agreed. "He was waiting out here for me to come out. It sounded like he'd been waiting a while."

"You think he followed us here?" Uraraka said, sounding nervous.

Izuku couldn't really blame her for it. To Uraraka, Shindo was this mysterious figure who had come out from nowhere to threaten harm on her classmates, or maybe even her as well. Anyone would be nervous in such a scenario.

"Followed me and Izuku, more like," Katsuki said. "He's had it in for us since day one. Explains why I felt someone watching me for the last couple of days, at least. Little shit is dedicated, if nothing else."

Izuku shuddered. He'd dismissed Katsuki's feelings at the time, which he was now seriously regretting. Maybe if he'd treated them a little more seriously instead of just dismissing them as Katsuki's strange way of showing his nerves, they might have realized what Shindo was planning ahead of time.

Then again, Katsuki's solution to the problem of being stalked would probably have been to just attack Shindo before he could get the jump on them, so maybe it was for the best that they hadn't realized that he was following them.

"I guess he was _reeeeally_ jealous then," Ashido said, causing everyone to look at her in confusion.

"What?" she said, glancing around at their confused faces. "He sounded super jealous of Midoriya, or at least he did to me."

"Jealous… of me?" Izuku said slowly, trying to work the idea over in his head. It was more than a little ridiculous. What did Shindo have to be jealous about when compared to Izuku? They'd been like night and day ever since the first day that they had known each other.

"HAH!" Katsuki shouted, "I fucking knew it! Only reason he applied to UA was because we did, and he was the only one of us that failed. It must eat him up inside."

Izuku nodded his agreement. "I'm pretty sure that's why he was following us. He thought I cheated to get in, and wanted to know how."

Katsuki growled at that, though Uraraka just looked confused.

"Why would he think you cheated?" Uraraka asked. "Is it because you only had rescue points?"

"It's cause he's a slimy piece of—" Katsuki began, only to be cut off by Izuku.

"It's because Shindo thought I couldn't use my Quirk," he said quickly.

"What? Why would he think that?" Uraraka asked.

"Because for a long time… I couldn't," Izuku said.

If it had been anyone else asking, or if it had been anyone other than his closest friends in attendance, then he doubted he would have been able to say anything. As it stood, however, he felt… not quite comfortable, but safe. He could open the doors a little, for the first time in forever, and talk about one of the hardest moments of his life.

So, he took a deep breath, steeled his nerves, and began to speak.

"When I was four, our family doctor told me that I had an invisible Quirk…"

* * *

For the duration of his train ride home, Karasu Shindo stewed in his anger. He was pissed at Midoriya, pissed at Bakugou, and pissed at himself for screwing up what should have been a perfect plan. He had gone out of his way to avoid Bakugou getting involved that night, and yet the blond wannabe villain had ended up throwing the whole thing off. Him, and that pink girl.

Karasu's plan had been simple and brilliant. Wait for Bakugou and Midoriya to go their separate ways, then pounce on Midoriya and drag him away before his pet was any wiser. Once he had Midoriya on his own, Karasu had been sure he could wring the truth out of him without too much effort. The guy could barely keep it together when their teacher called on him in class, after all. Then, once he knew how Midoriya had managed to weasel his way through UA's entrance exam, he could choose whether to exploit it for himself first, or just report Midoriya and be done with it.

All of that was gone now though. Bakugou would be keeping an eye out for him, and he was annoyingly perceptive when it came to spotting people sneaking up on him, as several of their more overambitious classmates over the years had realized.

Not Karasu, though. He had known that Bakugou was dangerous from the beginning, and had done his best to stay clear of a beating. He'd still run afoul of Bakugou eventually, but it had only been once, and Bakugou had been punished severely for it. Midoriya as well, for being an instigator.

Those had been the days. Back in middle school, things had been right in the world. Brutes like Bakugou who only distracted and annoyed hard working students like Karasu were punished, and slackers like Midoriya fell by the wayside. That was how things had always been, both at Aldera and Karasu's previous school.

They weren't supposed to suddenly surpass everyone, and get into prestigious schools like UA, and definitely not the hero program while Karasu and the rest of the class had to make do with their second or third choices.

The high school Karasu was attending wasn't even a hero school. It was a good public high, and one that most students would be proud to attend, but it didn't even compare to places like UA or Shiketsu. It was, however, the only school that had accepted Karasu. All the other hero schools had dismissed him out of hand after the practical half of the entrance exams.

It didn't make sense. Karasu's Quirk was perfectly suited to hero work, and he had the grades to match. He should have been a prime candidate. Hell, when he had turned in his application to Shiketsu, they had said that they couldn't wait to see him for the exam.

How had Midoriya, the absolute loser who couldn't manage to put together enough brain cells to use his Quirk on the regular, and who had to rely on Bakugou to do his dirty work, made it in when Karasu hadn't?

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he wasn't looking where he was going, and crashed directly into someone who was standing in the center of the platform, staring around at the passengers around him.

"Watch it, kid," the man growled.

Everything about him screamed danger to Karasu, from his muscular frame and shaved head to the plain face mask that covered the lower half of his face. The masks weren't uncommon by any means, but there was something about the way he wore it that said it wasn't being worn for other's protection, but to obscure his identity. Not that it helped much. The guy was huge, and Karasu would remember the cold look in his eyes for the rest of his life.

"Sorry sir," Karasu said, quickly backing up with his hands in front of him to show that he was unarmed. He didn't know why he did it, but it felt like the right thing to do in that situation. "Wasn't looking where I was going."

"Keep a better eye out then," the man grumbled before turning back to watch the rapidly thinning crowd.

Karasu breathed a sigh of relief that the man hadn't accosted him, or tried to extract payment for stuffing his clothes. He turned to leave, but before he could get more than a few steps away, the man called out to him.

"Hey kid. Wait up a second."

He froze in place, unsure of what to do. A part of him wanted to try running. It had already worked out once that night. What's to say it wouldn't save his ass again?

Then again, Karasu got the feeling that if he tried to flee and this man caught him, he would be in for a much worse time than if Bakugou slapped him around for a while.

So, he put on the bravest face he could manage, and turned back towards the man.

"Yes?" Karasu asked politely.

"I'm looking for a girl. Looks about your age, long white hair, single horn on her forehead, probably a bit sickly looking. You seen her?"

Karasu shook his head quickly. He hadn't even seen the man before running into him, so there was no chance of seeing whatever girl this guy was looking for, even if Karasu had walked straight past her.

"Damn," the man swore, scratching at his head. As he did, tiny shards of either glass or crystal scattered across his shoulders, like oddly beautiful dandruff. "Almost out of time. But she's gotta be here somewhere. Maybe the next district over…"

While the man was distracted, Karasu decided it was best to leave and began to shuffle away. He hoped that the slow movement wouldn't draw the man's attention, but he was sadly incorrect.

The man's gaze snapped back to Karasu before he could get out of sight, boring into him with their intensity.

"Kid, if you see that girl I'm looking for, you tell her to head back right away. Chisaki's real worried about her."

"I, uh, I'll do that," Karasu said.

That seemed to satisfy the man, at least. He gave a quick nod, then marched off down the platform, barking orders into his phone. It was almost impossible to hear over the din of the station and the few remaining people on the platform, but it sounded like the man wasn't the only one out looking for this girl, which really begged the question of who she was. Not that Karasu really cared at the moment.

With a long sigh, Karasu made his way to the nearest wall, then slowly slid down it until he was sitting on the ground. It was absolutely filthy, and he was definitely going to wash his uniform when he got home, but that didn't seem important anymore. In fact, after two brushes with severe injury in quick succession, he only had one question for himself.

"The fuck is my life?"

* * *

**Author's Note**:

First, I'm so very sorry for how long this chapter took. My motivation for the past few months has been at an all time low, which has made making progress on this chapter rather difficult. Thankfully the CA fires haven't burned my house down (yet), so I've been slowly chipping away at it. Hopefully the next one will come a little sooner this time, though it will still be a while between chapters. I'd love to lower the time between them, but I'm just not productive enough at the current moment to get it to where I want it to be, especially as I'm juggling two long fics.

Thankfully, we're getting to one of the parts of this fic that I've been greatly looking forward too, as well as the scene that inspired this whole thing. Next chapter should take us through the beginnings of the USJ, and (finally) the reveal of Izuku's Invisible Quirk.

A massive thank you to Raef_Darksbane for editing this fic. He's a paragon of virtue, and I encourage everyone to go check out his MHA/BOTW fic.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Your support and enjoyment means the world to me, and it's what keeps me going with this story. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you have an excellent day!


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